The Community Shield is upon us once again. This year’s FA Cup holders Arsenal take on the Premier League Champions Chelsea in a clash of giants. Whenever you see that Arsenal will be playing against Chelsea you become interested because the games are always eventful. Even in the days before Roman Abramovich started pumping his money into the Blues these derbies were entertaining. Nowadays, it might be fair to say that Arsenal are underdogs going into the fixture seeing as Chelsea have been constantly growing stronger and stronger with each passing season.
However, Arsenal finally have the team to compete with Chelsea and this Community Shield fixture will prove exactly how ready the Gunners are for the upcoming season.
Arsenal, it seems, may already be at an advantage over their rivals because they started their pre-season training a week earlier and so should, in theory be much fitter coming into the game. Also, following the success of the recent Emirates Cup it is safe to assume that the players will be fired up and hungry for more silverware. So, already it seems Arsenal may have the psychological advantage over Chelsea. However, don’t assume that just because the Gunners are slightly closer to full fitness that Chelsea will be pushovers. They are always a tough side to play against and Jose Mourinho will be hoping to keep his perfect record against Arsene Wenger going into the new season.
The main strength of the current Chelsea side is their solidarity in defence and their patience in the game. They are not a team that will chase the ball all game. They prefer to retain the ball as much as possible and keep it moving around their defence and deeper-lying midfielders, waiting for a hole to open up in their opponents that they can then probe. To overcome this, Arsenal need to be equally patient – they can’t play like they usually do; wasteful in attack and often shaky in defence. They need to take time and catch Chelsea on the counter attack.
It is very likely that Mourinho’s men will see more of the ball than Arsenal and as such Wenger’s side need to stay strong in defence; much like they did at the Etihad against Manchester City last season. Chelsea will inevitably have more attacks than Arsenal but as long as the Gunners hold their shape, with everybody back behind the ball then there will be no space for players like Eden Hazard and Willian to utilise and by cutting off these attacking outlets, Arsenal will strangle the Chelsea attack and cut off opportunities.
From there, the Gunners must be quick on the counter. With players like Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at his disposal, Wenger will be hoping that they can bomb up the pitch and catch the Chelsea defence underprepared having committed numbers forward in earlier attacks. The fact that Petr Cech is between the sticks for the Gunners is also crucial because his distribution is by far superior to any other Arsenal keepers’ and so he can start the counter attacks off.
The main thing that Arsenal must avoid is being wasteful with the ball. They won’t see much of it in Chelsea’s half and so when they work the ball into attacking positions they must make sure not to needlessly run into defenders or play sloppy passes for Chelsea to pounce on. As such players like Francis Coquelin and Mikel Arteta may be useful because they are both very able distributors of the ball, and whereas before Arteta was often caught out because of his lack of pace, Coquelin can, and has been, covering his fellow midfielders in front of the back four. Therefore with Arteta and Coquelin at the base of the Arsenal attack, the forwards should be able to be picked out much more easily and so open up the Chelsea defence.
Arsenal need to start with Walcott up front and play Ozil on one wing with Cazorla playing through the middle to make sure that the club’s our best creators in the attack as well as the pace up front to latch onto the through balls; something Olivier Giroud struggled to do against Chelsea last season at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal have a chance to win the Community Shield. Obviously, it wouldn’t be the end of the world to lose to Chelsea, as they are a quality side, but a win for the Gunners would set the precedent that Arsenal are ready to challenge for the League next season. As long as Arsenal stay rigid in defence and attack with pace and precision then there is no reason why they can’t beat Chelsea at Wembley.
