Despite the win coming in pre-season, Arsene Wenger finally has success to his name against Jose Mourinho, and a fully deserved one at that. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored the only goal of the game after 23 minutes, giving Arsenal a 1-0 victory and the Community Shield for the second year running. Arsenal couldn’t have prepared any better ahead of the new season, and this win will undoubtedly fill the Gunners with confidence. Wenger spoke to the media after the match against Chelsea, and faced questions on the victory, Petr Cech, Jose Mourinho and the potential arrival of Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema.
Reflecting on the Community Shield, Wenger was clearly happy with his team’s performance: “It was an intense game. We scored the first goal and after that you could see two teams playing with full concentration, full commitment.
“Maybe in some parts during the game we just tried to protect our lead but you could see that my team was really determined not to give a goal away.
“Sometimes we lost offensive potential by focusing on our defensive side, but every time we attacked we had chances.”
Wenger believes that Arsenal were the better team throughout the afternoon, and could have scored more than just the one goal after spurning three good chances that fell to Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla and Kieran Gibbs: “We had many chances today and the best chances were on our side. We won against a good team, we won another trophy… so that’s positive.”
Mourinho commented after the game that Arsenal ‘abandoned their philosophy’, however Wenger was quick to his team’s defence and praised their all round performance: “We abandoned nothing. We defended well. Our game is based on togetherness, on solidarity, and defending and attacking well.”
Arsenal have often been criticised for not being able to see out matches from winning positions, but held strong until the final whistle at Wembley. Wenger admired his teams maturity and experience, saying: “I believe that we defended because there was maybe a bit of a psychological hurdle ahead of my players.
“They were more concerned with protecting our lead against Chelsea rather than playing attacking football.
“We have to accept that and I don’t think that’s giving up your philosophy, it’s a punctual fact that we wanted to win a game like that. I’m quite proud of that.”
When asked if it’s satisfying to beat Chelsea and Mourinho, Wenger praised his team’s defensive approach and concentration against an impressive Chelsea attack: “There’s an extra satisfaction because we won a game between two very good teams, and we also didn’t concede a goal against the offensive potential that Chelsea has. At the end we wanted to win and we won.”
At the 14th time of asking, Wenger finally managed to defeat Mourinho. However, the Frenchman admitted he didn’t pay any attention to his personal victories, and said it was more important for the teams confidence than his own: “I must honestly say that it didn’t play on my mind at all.
“As long as I get it served every time in press conferences it can have an impact on the team.” Despite the successes of the past few seasons, Arsenal have still struggled against Chelsea, and this victory is sure to lift the team for any future matches. Wenger added: “Certainly the way my team behaved during some periods in the game, it helped.
“It was important for them to get that hurdle out of the way.”
Despite a long rivalry with the Chelsea boss, which has included verbal and physical interactions, Wenger still has respect for his Portuguese opponent. “We live in a job where you have to respect people and respect everybody.
“It’s a difficult job and we just think it’s vital – and I’ve said this many times in managers’ meetings – that managers respect each other.”
Arsenal were able to defeat Chelsea at Wembley without last season’s Player of the Year, Alexis Sanchez. Another man that missed the match through injury was Jack Wilshere. Wenger updated us on the condition of the English midfielder, and the news isn’t as bad as first thought: “He couldn’t take part in the game today because of an ankle problem he sustained yesterday. It happened at the training ground.
“We don’t think it’s bad at all but I haven’t been told whether it will be two days or five days.
“I don’t know how long he will not be available for. It’s a matter of days.”
The Community Shield is Arsenal’s third pre-season competition victory, after the Barclays Asia Trophy and the Emirates Cup. Wenger said that confidence is high ahead of the new season: “Confidence-wise it’s good, it’s positive, and it allows you to focus on your next game with belief. It shows your players that they’re doing something right and apart from that, now the Premier League starts.
“We have to turn up with the needed and demanded performance in every single game.”
Arsenal kick-off their Premier League campaign at home against West Ham next Sunday, and will be eager to start the season better than they started the last: “We have a tricky start against West Ham United, Crystal Palace – the two derbies – and then Liverpool straight after.
“We need to keep a high level of urgency to start well because last year we had that problem.”
Goalkeeper Petr Cech won his third trophy in as many games in an Arsenal shirt. He looked confident throughout, made some good saves and had a calming influence on the entire Arsenal team: “He did well. Maybe he had an influence on the Chelsea players as well because they felt that to score against him they had to score the perfect goal.
“When you have that sometimes you want to try too hard. It happened especially with Eden Hazard when he had that chance in the box.”
Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud both played a part in the victory, and both spent time as the lone striker. Both have different strengths, which Wenger strategically used when selecting his starting eleven: “It depends on the games. I tried to see the options I have through the season.
“I felt today that I wanted to use Theo’s pace to go in behind. In the first half he worked very hard, didn’t get too much service, but he worked very hard.
“In the second half when Giroud came on I think he gave us a physical presence that was needed at that time as well.”
Wenger is a long time admirer of Karim Benzema, and it’s been rumoured he may be on his way to the Emirates. Wenger has said he will only enter the market for the right player, however dismissed any rumours linking him with a move to North London: “No, nothing is happening. Honestly no.
I don’t know who brings that up. Is it Spanish media or English media? I don’t know.”
