ENGLAND: Arsenal defeated Chelsea in a dramatic penalty shoot-out at Wembley to open the new English season with silverware.
Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata missed from the spot as Arsenal claimed the Community Shield by beating 10-man Chelsea 4-1 on penalties.
After a 1-1 draw in regulation time, the shoot-out saw goalkeeper Courtois, an unusual choice to take his side’s second penalty, bizarrely fire his attempt way over.
That was followed by new signing Morata missing the target on his competitive debut, with Olivier Giroud going on to score the winning penalty.
In the match itself, Victor Moses, sent off when the Blues lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal in May, struck early in the second half with what looked like it would be the winner.
But Chelsea had Pedro sent off for a rash challenge on Mohamed Elneny and Arsenal substitute Sead Kolasinac, on his competitive bow, scored a header from the resulting free-kick with eight minutes remaining.
Alexandre Lacazette, given his Arsenal debut from the start, had earlier come the closest to a first-half goal at Wembley, sending a strike against the post.
Arsenal have now won the Community Shield three times in the last four years, while the Blues have lost four consecutive appearances in the fixture.
Victory for Arsene Wenger’s men means the Shield has seen the FA Cup winners beat the defending Premier League champions for four consecutive seasons.
14 – Arsenal have won their 14th Community Shield(excluding shared), second only to Manchester United (18).
Despite being without the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal were the first to threaten, Danny Welbeck heading straight at Courtois.
Arsenal continued to shade the early stages and came closest to a goal in the opening half. In a fast break, Lacazette exchanged passes with Welbeck and curled his effort against the post from just inside the penalty area.
The Gunners were forced into a change around the half-hour mark, Per Mertesacker replaced by Kolasinac after drawing blood in an aerial challenge with Gary Cahill, a blow for Wenger, who was already without Shkodran Mustafi and had opted to leave out Laurent Koscielny.
That gave Chelsea some momentum, with Moses and Pedro forcing Petr Cech to parry away their efforts in quick succession.
Willian then went into the book after he was adjudged to have dived under a challenge from Hector Bellerin, before the lively Alex Iwobi showed good footwork before testing Courtois at the other end.