Arsenal pick up the first piece of 2023-24 silverware following a penalty shootout victory over Manchester City in the Community Shield. We look back at the key stats from the game at Wembley Stadium.
Arsenal have picked up the first piece of domestic silverware of the 2023-24 season with their penalty shootout victory over Manchester City in the FA Community Shield at Wembley. They’ll hope the curse doesn’t follow them in their quest for a first Premier League title since 2003-04, however. Only one of the last 12 winners of the Community Shield have gone on to win the Premier League title later that season.
Trailing 1-0 deep into injury time, many Arsenal fans would have been looking at their watches at 18:02 planning an exit from Wembley Stadium to potentially avoid missing the worst of the post-match rush for the tube. Just 13 minutes later, they were celebrating an unlikely Community Shield victory.
After Leandro Trossard’s last gasp strike, the Gunners were lethal from their shootout attempts and scored all four, while Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri both failed to convert from the spot.
Of course, penalty shootout victories don’t count as match wins, but this was still a big moment for Mikel Arteta. It ends a run of eight successive defeats for him against Pep Guardiola as a manager, since last beating him in the 2019-20 FA Cup semi-final (2-0 with Arsenal), also at Wembley.
Trossard’s 101st-minute strike took the game to penalties, with the Belgian doing excellently to feint inside towards the penalty area and send a shot towards the goal. That shot took a heavy deflection off Man City defender Manuel Akanji, wrong-footing goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and sending the game to a penalty shootout.
Cole Palmer scored the opening goal of the game, curling a lovely strike past Aaron Ramsdale just 13 minutes after entering the pitch as a substitute for Erling Haaland. This goal comes only a month after he helped England win the Under-21 European Championships, and he’ll hope 2023-24 is his breakout year. Of course, we think that might be the case too, with Palmer featuring in this season’s Analyst 50.
At 21 years and 92 days old, Palmer became the youngest player to score in the Community Shield since Cesc Fàbregas for Arsenal against Chelsea in 2005 (18 years, 95 days).
It was an unusually quiet appearance from last season’s 52-goal striker Haaland. Before coming off, he had just 13 touches (the fewest in the match), with none of those coming in the opposition box. Last season, despite being renowned for not being heavily involved in Man City’s play, Haaland averaged 26 touches per 90, with seven of those coming in the opposition box.
More alarming for City and Guardiola was that he failed to attempt a shot. Across the 50 matches that Haaland played at least 45 minutes in 2022-23, he only failed to have a shot in one of those appearances. The lack of service to their striker was very noticeable, which might be a concern following the departure of both Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gündoğan this summer, but it would have been irritating for Haaland to see Kevin De Bruyne enter the pitch at the same time as he left it and even more frustrating to see the winning goal assisted by the Belgian. After all, De Bruyne assisted him for 11 goals last season – more than any other teammate.
The Community Shield shouldn’t be a litmus test for how Haaland’s season will go, though. We only have to look back at last season when he missed three good chances worth 1.04 xG in the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in the 2022 edition of the fixture. He was laughably written off by some before his record-breaking season.
Another player written off by some last season was Kai Havertz. After a miserable campaign at Chelsea, where he scored nine goals from a total of 14.5 xG across all competitions, the German forward was snapped up by Arteta in the summer in the hope that he could find the goalscoring touch in north London.
Havertz was presented with two good chances to score within the opening 40 minutes, worth a combined 0.52 xG, but he failed to convert both. When you get chances against a side as good as Manchester City, you need to take them. He didn’t manage another shot at goal after those efforts.
The Community Shield isn’t always considered a meaningful trophy to win but try telling that to Arsenal fans. This last gasp turnaround lands a psychological blow on their rivals City ahead of what promises to be an exciting Premier League title race.
On this page below, you’ll find the Opta chalkboard tool, which enables you to do your own analysis on this year’s FA Community Shield match. From kick-off, you’ll see all the match data populate in the chalkboards, allowing you to analyse metrics from goals, assists, shots, passes, tackles and interceptions for every player in both line-ups.
Underneath the chalkboards, you can also see our live match coverage from the game with the need-to-know facts and stats as it happened.
Arsenal vs Manchester City Timeline
18:17: Arsenal win the 2023 Community Shield
Arsenal have the first piece of silverware in 2023-24, beating Manchester City 4-1 on penalties at Wembley.
Fabio Vieira scores the winning spot-kick, completing Arsenal’s unlikely comeback. The Gunners scored all four of their penalties, while Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri failed to convert theirs.
18:03: Equaliser in the 101st Minute!
Arsenal have found a way through, finally. They left it late, but it’s better late than never.
After brilliant work from sub Leandro Trossard, who feinted to shoot but then came inside, his shot his Man City defender Manuel Akanji before going into the goal.
That’s the final action of the game, and with the scores tied we head to a penalty shootout at Wembley.
17:40: 1-0 to Manchester City!
He’s only been on the pitch for 13 minutes, but Cole Palmer has put Manchester City 1-0 up in the Community Shield with a brilliant left-footed curler past Aaron Ramsdale.
Substitute Palmer did what Erling Haaland – the player he replaced today – couldn’t, firstly having a touch in the box, then having a shot, then finally scoring a goal.
It’s been an excellent summer for Palmer following his involvement in England’s victory at the Under-21 European Championships in July, and he might have just won Man City their first piece of silverware in 2023-24.
17:18: Haaland Kept Quiet
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland isn’t a player that gets heavily involved in Manchester City matches; we all know that.
Last season he averaged just 26 touches per 90 minutes, with seven of those coming in the opposition box. With 55 minutes gone in this match, the Norwegian striker has had the fewest touches of any player (10), with none of those coming in the opposition box. He’s also yet to have a shot – across 2022-23, he only failed to attempt a shot in one of the 50 competitive matches he played at least 45 minutes in.
16:52: 0-0 at Half-Time
Manchester City may have controlled possession in the first half (62%), but Arsenal have had the best chances – both falling to Kai Havertz.
Man City may have completed 114 passes more than Arsenal have across the opening 45 minutes of this game, but Mikel Arteta’s side have had nearly three times the number of touches in the opposition box (13 vs. 5). A lot of possession for City, but a real lack of attacking threat.
16:45: Another Havertz Chance, Another Ortega Save
Arsenal have had the two best chances in this match so far, and both have come via Kai Havertz.
Havertz’s two chances have both been saved by Stefan Ortega and have had a cumulative xG of 0.52. Last season at Chelsea, Havertz scored just nine competitive goals, despite posting an xG of 14.5 – an underperformance of 5.5 goals.
16:28: Man City Dominating Possession
Manchester City have controlled the ball for the majority of the opening 25 minutes of the game. They have already completed 209 passes, with 41 of those being in the final third of the pitch. Arsenal’s tallies? Just 59 with only 6 of those have come in the attacking third of the pitch.
Despite this, Kai Havertz has just had the best chance of the match so far. After swivelling on the ball, he forces a fine save from Ortega in the City goal.
However, passes don’t win games and it’s still 0-0.
16:00: Kick Off
We’re off and (technically) the 2023-24 competitive season begins for both Arsenal and Manchester City.
15:45: Pre-Match Opta Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is warming up for the busy Premier League season and we asked it to predict this afternoon’s Community Shield outcome.
Manchester City are tipped to win this clash, with a 54.6% chance of winning inside 90 minutes. Arsenal won just over a fifth (21.8%) of the pre-match simulations, but they have lost their last eight meetings with Pep Guardiola’s side, so something will have to change for that to not extend to nine.
15:15: Arsenal vs Manchester City Lineups
Manchester City fans will be pleased that Erling Haaland starts this afternoon, especially after he terrorised Arsenal’s central defenders on the last occasion that the two sides met in their 4-1 victory back in April. However, the player who scored twice that day – Kevin De Bruyne – only makes the bench in Pep Guardiola’s side.
New signing Mateo Kovacic starts his first competitive Man City game after joining from Chelsea this summer, deployed in midfield alongside the man that scored the winning goal in the 2023 UCL final, Rodri.
City start with Stefan Ortega Moreno in goal, with Ederson among the subs. The German goalkeeper conceded just seven goals in 14 competitive appearances for Man City in 2022-23, at an average of a goal every 173 minutes – a better rate than Ederson’s 110 mins.
Arsenal start all three of their summer signings, with Jurriën Timber starting in defence, Declan Rice placed alongside Thomas Partey and Martin Ødegaard in midfield and Kai Havertz in their senior figure attack with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka either side of the German forward.
Havertz has scored just one goal across his previous eight competitive appearances versus Man City (379 minutes), but that goal won Chelsea the 2021 UEFA Champions League. Talk about picking your moment.
14:45: Arsenal’s Transfer Business
Some essential pre-match reading for Arsenal fans, here.
It’s been a busy summer in the market for the Gunners, with the arrival of three top players in the form of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurriën Timber.
We analysed the qualities for all three stars across pre-season, and you can find these below.
14:00: Haaland on the Hunt
Erling Haaland enters 2023-24 on the hunt for more goals. He ended his first season at Manchester City with 52 goals in all competitions, breaking both the record for the most goals by a single player for a Premier League club in competitive action (previously at 44 goals) and the Premier League seasonal record (36, surpassing the previous record of 34).
Haaland’s 52 goals in 2022-23 came across 53 appearances in all competitions, with the 2022 FA Community Shield the only competition that he played in but failed to score.
The all-time record for most goals by a English top-flight player across all competitions in a single season is currently held by Dixie Dean for Everton in 1927-28 (63 – a tally that Haaland was 11 off in 2022-23).
We pondered if Haaland could break more records this season in our Manchester City season preview – today would be a good place to start chasing those.
13:35: The Winners Curse?
Only one of the last 12 teams to win the FA Community Shield have gone on to win the Premier League title at the end of that season.
The 2022 Community Shield match at the King Power Stadium in Leicester saw Liverpool defeat Manchester City 3-1, with City striker Erling Haaland criticized for a performance that saw him fail to score despite attempting three shots totalling a match-high 1.04 expected goals. He ended up doing alright in 2022-23, we think.
Last 12 Community Shield Matches (Eventual Premier League Champions)
2022: Liverpool 3-1 Manchester City (Manchester City)
2021: Leicester City 1-0 Manchester City (Manchester City)
2020: Arsenal 1-0 Liverpool (Manchester City)
2019: Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool – 5-4 on pens (Liverpool)
2018: Manchester City 2-0 Chelsea (Manchester City)
2017: Arsenal 1-1 Chelsea – 4-1 on pens (Manchester City)
2016: Manchester United 2-1 Leicester City (Chelsea)
2015: Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea (Leicester City)
2014: Arsenal 3-0 Manchester City (Chelsea)
2013: Manchester United 2-0 Wigan Athletic (Manchester City)
2012: Manchester City 3-2 Chelsea (Manchester United)
2011: Manchester United 3-2 Manchester City (Manchester City)
13:30: The Pre-Match Arsenal vs Man City Stats
Our fantastic UK data insights team (you may know them as OptaJoe) have prepared some need-to-know pre-match facts ahead of the 2023 FA Community Shield:
• This will be the third Community Shield meeting between Manchester City and Arsenal, with the Gunners winning the previous two – 4-0 at Highbury in 1934 and 3-0 at Wembley in 2014.
• Manchester City have won 16 of their 19 meetings with Arsenal under Pep Guardiola (D1 L2), though both defeats did come in matches at Wembley Stadium (2017 and 2020 FA Cup semi-finals).
• In the Premier League era, the seven previous league/cup double winners have won five of their seven appearances in the following campaign’s Community Shield, with the exceptions being Arsenal beating Manchester United in 1999 and Manchester United beating Chelsea in 2010.
• Manchester City have lost their last two Community Shield matches, losing 1-0 against Leicester in 2021 and 3-1 against Liverpool last year. The only team to lose the match in three consecutive years before are Manchester United, who lost four in a row between 1998 and 2001.
• Arsenal have won the Community Shield on the last four occasions they’ve participated in it since losing 2-1 against Chelsea in 2005. The last time the Gunners failed to win the Shield when the final was played at Wembley was in 1993, when Manchester United beat them on penalties.
• Arsenal have lost just two of their last 15 games at Wembley Stadium in all competitions (W9 D4), with both of those defeats coming in February 2018 (against Spurs in the Premier League and Manchester City in the League Cup final).
• The previous season’s FA Cup winner (including league/cup double winners) has won the Community Shield in eight of the previous nine editions, the only exception being in 2018, when Man City beat Chelsea 2-0.
• Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne has been involved in eight goals in his last eight appearances against Arsenal in all competitions (6 goals, 2 assists), including five in his last two. The Belgian has also had a hand in six goals in his last eight club games at Wembley Stadium (1 goal, 5 assists), setting up both of the Citizens’ goals in their FA Cup final win against Man Utd most recently.
• After scoring in last season’s Community Shield, Man City’s Julián Álvarez could become the first player to score in consecutive years since Adrian Heath did so for Everton in 1985 and 1986.
• No current Arsenal player has scored for the club at Wembley Stadium – the Gunners’ last five goals at the ground have all been netted by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
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