First published on Ace Magazine Online. August 2014.

It seems strange to think that only once before have Arsenal and Manchester City have met in the Charity/Community Shield. That game also ended up with the men from Manchester being taught a lesson in humility. Whilst this defeat won’t hurt many of the fans that travelled all the way down the M6 as much as it did in the utter ignominy that faced them in the workplace after their team lost to Wigan Athletic in the 2013 F.A. Cup Final, it will still send a few nervous nights to those who go to Eastlands this season that those charged with carrying on the success if the likes of Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and Joey Hart should face lengthy lay-offs, are not exactly the thrilling machine that has carried Manchester City to so much success in the last four years.

For Arsenal though and for Arsene Wenger in particular these are salad days once more at the Emirates. After going nine seasons without a single trophy, in the space of three months they have won two and what this will do for the confidence of the grand old lady of London football is almost immeasurable. The area around that part of London will be buzzing as they head into the start of the season and given a good start Arsenal will be serious contenders again to land the league ahead of the Community Shield counterparts.

Only once in the last 40 years has a season curtain opener really stuck in the memory and a Kevin Keegan sending off aside, it’s doubtful that it will really ever have the same allure in the eyes of the neutral that the F.A. Cup, League Cup or even the Conference play-off final will have, but for two teams on the day and their fans it is a chance to lay down early bragging rights and a small psychological battle in the depth of the season gained.

In truth there really was only ever one winner in this match almost from the kick off. With Manchester City’s manager Manuel Pellegrini making more changes to the team between two competitive matches than an under fire Prime Minister losing half his cabinet due to a rumoured Revolution, it wouldn’t have been surprising to learn that Arsenal could smell blood from a wounded animal, for at least the majority of the game Arsenal wanted it more.

If a week is a long time in politics, then a season in football must feel like waiting for the right coat in a winter sale between Ice Ages. This time last year Arsene Wenger was taking barrels of criticism. Rightly or wrongly, the long serving manager was subject of a campaign in which some suggested openly that despite the prudency and relative success he had bought them, it was time for change, time for the Frenchman to walk away and let someone else take on the likes of David Moyes at Manchester United. Moyes proved to be the weak link there whilst Mr. Wenger quietly and with some assurance kept the team plugging away, and whilst they may have run out steam well before the end of the season in the league, for them to carry on and lift the F.A. Cup was nothing short of sensational.

The way they took apart, admittedly a weakened, Manchester City was also nothing short of sensational and if all things being equal were taken into consideration the talk this week would be of City being humbled five or six nil.

The traditional curtain raiser, the chance to check out new signings, look at the fitness of the old guard and all without having to worry too much before three pm the following Saturday. One new innovation that was too make its debut in the English game though was the foam spray in which players would have to stand behind at the event of a free kick. It went down well with crowds and television audiences during this year’s World Cup so this might be seen as the best foreign import to the game ever. It certainly got one of the loudest cheers during the game and arguably only the scene of F.I.F.A. President Sepp Blatter signing a letter of resignation on the half way line at the new Wembley could have been a bigger sense of occasion on the day.

The biggest shock of the day was reserved for Joey Hart being named amongst the substitutes for Manchester City as Willy Caballero took his place at the heart of the back four. There will be question on this move perhaps above all others during the game. If City has one failing then at times it can be that the defence is liable to wander. A lot of this last season can be delivered straight to the door of the early disappointment of Martin Demichelis and the uncertainty of Joey Hart’s position within the plans of the manager but if you want to win a trophy and to give you a great start to the season then surely it should be argued that you play your best team at all possible times. It might be understandable that the Argentinian trio of Demichelis, Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta to have one extra week off to get match fit again after their lengthy tournament but to leave out Joey Hart is bordering upon the insane approach to man-management.

It was this change in goal keeper, the change in the way City play from the back that allowed Arsenal to take them apart with a certain amount of ease with Alexis Sánchez, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshire in particular able to go past the back four, especially Gaël Clichy and Dedryck Boyata, as if playing football against a side made up of traffic cones.

Three goals, including a rather special one from Olivier Giroud, in truth it should have been more, were enough to show the failings in a second string approach and exemplify once more why Arsene Wenger is and will always be one of the finest managerial brains to have managed in the Premiership.

Once the real Manchester City turn up against Newcastle then it will be a different story but if you cannot rely on the squad members to make up the numbers, even in what is essentially a pre-season friendly, then there could be worries ahead, not in the terms of what befell the Manchester City between 1993 and 2002 but enough to place a doubt on the team’s ability to retain the Premiership trophy next May.

Manchester City: Willy Caballero, Gaël Clichy, Dedryck Boyata, Matija Nastasić, Aleksandar Kolarov, Fernando, Yaya Touré, Jesús Navas, Samir Nasri, Edin Džeko

Substitutes: Micah Richards, James Milner, Scott Sinclair, David Silva, Bruno Zuculini.

Arsenal: Wojciech Szczęsny, Mathieu Debuchy, Laurent Koscielny, Calum Chambers, Kieran Gibbs, Mikel Arteta,  Alexis Sánchez, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla, Yaya Sanogo.

Substitutes: Joel Campbell, Nacho Monreal, Tomáš Rosický, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mathieu Flamini, Olivier Giroud.

Referee: Michael Oliver.

Goal Scorers: Arsenal: Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud.

Final Score: Manchester City 0-3 Arsenal

Man of the Match: Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal)

Ian D. Hall