Arsenal win Premier League title as impressive Man Utd avoid ‘risk’ against trophy-hoarding City
Erik ten Hag was less bothered about the Community Shield than he was his Manchester United players avoiding injury. Pep Guardiola has another trophy.
If Mikel Arteta is willing to have his own players robbed in relentless pursuit of the Premier League title, it can be safely assumed he will savour any omen that might possibly point to Arsenal glory come what May.
Only one of the last 13 Community Shield victors have won the Premier League in the same season. It is the first time Manchester City have lifted the trophy since 2019, which was a fine prelude to the last time they failed to win the title.
Twelve months ago, Arsenal hoped victory over Pep Guardiola’s side on penalties at Wembley would provide the last push they needed to transform from runners-up to champions. By his own admission, Erik ten Hag’s motivations for this game were drastically different; after finishing eighth in a historically dreadful season they sort of had to be.
“We know already we can beat City and that is not dependent on the result on Saturday, which will not change that belief,” he said before the game, adding that while “we want to win”, Manchester United would not “take a risk” with the fitness levels of a squad which was decimated in 2023/24 and has already been depleted in this pre-season.
What Ten Hag wanted was for his players to “find the patterns” after reconvening following a major tournament summer which pulled them in all manner of directions. And after half an hour of almost interrupted Manchester City dominance, they did just that.
It was not quite the perfectly executed game plan of what was supposed to be an FA Cup final swansong, but when Ten Hag’s players found their rhythm it was glorious. Amad was irrepressible. Casemiro rediscovered the legs that had very much gone for the entirety of the past year. Bruno Fernandes was excellent, quarterbacking the ever-loving Christ out of a slightly static Manchester City defence.
Some of the moves they constructed were brilliant. The Amad one-two with Casemiro which Mason Mount should have been in position to finish; the one-touch play Marcus Rashford really ought to have converted. By the time Fernandes scored a sublime goal ruled out for offside early in the second half – wonderfully called mid-play by Ally McCoist who still revelled in the finish – Manchester United could argue they were the better side.
Rashford hit the post and Scott McTominay should have nudged the striker’s knockdown from a corner past Ederson, but it required some inspiration from the bench to find the breakthrough. Fernandes dropped deep to collect the ball and played it first time to Alejandro Garnacho, who surged inside and slotted into the corner.
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He could have quite the season. It is easy to forget that 2023/24 was Garnacho’s first full campaign at senior level, in which he scored ten goals, assisted five, was one of the club’s two best players in an FA Cup final win and helped Argentina to Copa America glory, albeit in a peripheral role.
It was strange not to see Joshua Zirkzee come on but Ten Hag’s pointed remarks about “risks” in the build-up were enough of an explanation. And those craving a debate about whether playing in a Community Shield final can possibly represent a new signing’s debut were satisfied when Savinho was introduced on the hour.
The current lead actor in the Manchester City Extended Universe, the jewel in the multi-club ownership crown resembles Jeremy Doku far more than Jack Grealish. There were a couple of fine runs from both Savinho and the Belgian winger, while Oscar Bobb fulfilled his part of the next Cole Palmer by piquing Chelsea’s interest with a fine showing.
His late cross was buried by preeminent aerial threat Bernardo Silva to set up a curious penalty shoot-out, any pretence of drama and tension rather undermined by Ederson jazz-handing his way back to the line after sending Andre ‘Temu Martinez’ Onana the wrong way in sudden death, shortly after saving from Jadon Sancho.
The ‘pre-season friendly versus Actual Silverware’ chat is equally diminished somewhat by a game largely settled by Jonny Evans proving the only method he has of kicking a ball is to clear it, before Manuel Akanji exorcised his Jordan Pickford-shaped demons.
But this game ticked necessary boxes for both teams: another trophy for a Manchester City side whose hunger might ordinarily have been satisfied as Arsenal aim again to take food off their plate; and 90 impressive minutes in which Manchester United held their own against the best team in the country once again, while miraculously managing to avoid any season-disrupting injuries.
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