LONDON, Sporting Alert – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored the only goal for Arsenal in their 1-0 victory over Chelsea in Sunday’s Community Shield at Wembley Stadium.
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The England winger converted the winner in the 24th minute when he picked up a pass from Theo Walcott, cut inside on his left foot, and then fired a shot into the roof of the net past Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Sunday’s victory saw Arsenal finally breaking a long scoring drought against a Jose Mourinho Chelsea side, having not scored a goal since 2007 and 506 minutes of action.
The win also saw Wenger finally securing a victory over Mourinho in 14 tries, with his record looking like this – (W1 D6 L7) – before the Community Shield win.
There were suggestions after the game that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had changed his approach and play a little more direct to catch Chelsea on the counter, but the Frenchman disagreed.
“We abandon nothing,” he said about his game strategy. “I believe today we defended because maybe it was a bit of a psychological hurdle, Chelsea, in the head of my players.
“Personally I must honestly say it didn’t play on my mind at all.
“But as long as I get it served every time in press conferences it can have an impact on the team.
“The way my team behaved during some periods of the game helped. It was important for them to get that hurdle out of the way.
“They were more concerned once we were 1-0 up to protect our lead than to play. We have to accept that.
“I don’t think that’s giving up your philosophy. We wanted to win, we behaved like that. I’m quite proud of that.”
Chelsea have lost five of their last six Community Shield games and Mourinho felt the better team was on the losing end again on Sunday.
“The best team lost. And the defensive team won,” Mourinho said.
“If you want to be pragmatic, like I normally am, I say in a simple way, they score, they didn’t concede. Well done. Congratulations.”
The game also saw former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech making his debut against his ex-club and the Czech Republic international made some great stops to keep his former employers off the scoresheet.
Chelsea were also a tad disappointing, with the likes of Eden Hazard, Radamel Falcao, Loic Remy, who started for the injured Diego Costa, and Willian all failing to impress.
