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FA Cup winners Arsenal emerged triumphant from an enjoyable encounter against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea yesterday to win the season-opening Community Shield.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first-half strike was enough to win the match for Arsene Wenger’s men. In so doing, the French manager records his first win over his old foe Mourinho. He had failed on the 13 previous occasions.
Oxlade-Chamberlain blew the game open on 24 minutes with a thundering shot. The Arsenal winger, whose season was interupted by injury last year, had collected a pass from Theo Walcott and, with his marker Cesar Azpilicueta standing off him, ran at his opponent before he shifted the ball onto his left foot. In the process, he created enough space to launch a superb shot beyond Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and into the top corner of the goal.
Mourinho, already without the injured Diego Costa, was forced to remove the ineffective Loic Remy at half-time, handing a debut to new on-loan signing Radamel Falcao. Minutes into the second half, he brought on the Brazilian Oscar as he looked for his side to pull their way back into the match.
Chelsea struggled to create any noteworthy goal-scoring opportunities in a poor first half from the Premier League champions, failing to trouble Arsenal debutant and former Chelsea keeper Petr Cech.
However, there was a marked improvement after the break. On 61 minutes, Eden Hazard was played in by Cesc Fabregas with a delicate pass. The Belgian blasted the ball over Cech’s crossbar from close range. Minutes later, substitute Oscar’s free-kick saw the Arsenal goalkeeper react well with an acrobatic save.
Arsenal’s players saw out the remainder of the match with little trouble to get their hands on their third pre-season trophy and enter the start of the season full of confidence.
After the game Wenger said: “Pre-season has gone quite well. We have the continuity of last season and no big injuries at the moment. We love competition and we want to do as well as we can. We have good spirit and I believe we look dangerous.”
