Less than a month after joining, Declan Rice’s big money move to The Arsenal has already paid off as he wins the biggest trophy of his career.
One of the key reasons he left West Ham was to compete for the top trophies.
Clearly fed up of endless relegation battles, his only trophy with the Hammers was the UEFA Europa Conference League. West Ham fans calling themselves ‘Champions of Europe’ is the equivalent of Wrexham calling themselves ‘Champions of England’ after they also won the Conference.
It is always good to see players play at the level they deserve too. Rice has clearly learnt from international teammate Harry Kane, who has spent his best years trophyless.
Winning the European Johnstone’s Paint Trophy did not make West Ham one of the big boys. Dec’s career will now go from strength to strength having made the step up to a top club.
Rice is a superstar. A World Class player who was plying his trade in a team who plays in 3rd tier European football.He had the pick of clubs from around the world and chose The Arsenal.
Whilst the Community Shield is not a major honour, it is tougher to win than the Europa Conference.
You either have to win the Premier League, win the FA Cup or finish 2nd in the league to compete in it. To enter the Europa Conference you need to finish 7th.
And then in the Community Shield, you often get two of the best teams in England playing each other. To win it we had to beat the Champions Man City.
West Ham’s opponents in the Conference thingamig reads like a list of bad European stag do options: Viborg, FCSB, Silkeborg, Anderlecht, AEK Larnaca, Genk, AZ and Fiorentina. I have only heard of two of those clubs.
In the final, West Ham faced the 8th best team in Italy. We faced the best team in England. The two competitions are simply not comparable.
Rice will only get better playing with better players. He has gone from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond. He will have to keep working hard on his game, improving to reach the level required for an Arsenal player.
His Arsenal career has got off to a great start with his first trophy in the bag, and the biggest of his career. More will now follow!
(Arsenal win the Community Shield on penalties 4-1)
FA Community Shield
Wembley Stadium, London HA9 0WS
Sunday, 6th August 2023. Kick-off time: 4.00pm
(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jurrien Timber; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli.
Substitutes: Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith-Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, Rob Holding, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner.
Scorers: Leandro Trossard (90+ 11). Penalty scorers; Martin Ødegaard, Leandro Trosard, Bukayo Saka and Fabio Vieira
Yellow Cards: Thomas Partey, Mikel Arteta, Kai Havertz, Gabriel
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 45%
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Assistant Referees: Tim Wood, Dan Robathan
Fourth Official: John Brooks
Reserve Assistant Referee: Steve Meredith
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Michael Salisbury; AVAR Neil Davies
Attendance: 81,145
This afternoon at Wembley Stadium, Arsenal Football Club will be contesting their twenty-fourth Charity/Community Shield match (the name was permanently changed in 2002). Of these matches, we were victorious on sixteen occasions (including a drawn game with Tottentham Hotspur in 1991, in which we shared the trophy), and runners-up seven times. Let’s see what happens in the game against the Premiership champions today.
After the usual presentations, along with the singing of the National Anthem, we kicked off the 2023 Community Shield game here in the North-West London sunshine. A very nervous start to the game from both teams led to some silly errors that resulted in free-kicks, mainly for clumsy tackling. The first attack of the game happened after just six minutes when Manuel Akanji crossed a ball and Julian Alvarez subsequently flicked his header across Aaron Ramsdale’s goal, which spun off and out of play. Thomas Partey received the first yellow card of the day for a petulant act, and then Bukayo Saka tried desperately to get away from Manuel Akanji but he pressurised him and the City man ended up winning a goal-kick for his team. Rodri fouled Kai Havertz quite badly, for which he should have been booked, and unbelievably, Mikel Arteta got the card instead for waving an imaginary yellow card! Manchester City are pressurising us in our own half and we are finding it difficult to break out. After just twenty-five minutes, we had the best chance of the game so far, when Ben White ran into the City penalty area and his pass found Kai Havertz, who spun around and took a shot; Stefan Ortega saved with his feet and Gabriel Martinelli’s rebound shot was blocked by the chest of John Stones. At first our players thought the ball had hit his arm, and we obviously appealed, but referee Stuart Attwell waved our players away. Kai Havertz received our third yellow card of the afternoon, when he kicked the ankle of John Stones as he was running by him, and our hearts were in our mouths a couple of minutes later when Aaron Ramsdale was too casual in clearing the ball as Erling Haaland was closing in on him, and we started to take the game to City with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka running at their defenders, winning two corners consecutively. Our second shot on target today came after thirty-nine minutes, when Kai Havertz’s shot was denied by Stefan Ortega, and in three minutes injury time at the end of the first half, despite some City pressure on our goal, the first forty-five minutes of the 2023 Community Shield match finished goalless.
The Premiership champions started the second half proceedings, and with no substitutions from either manager at half-time, we carried on with the same intensity that we left at the end of the previous period. Both teams were fiercely competitive straight from the kick-off, which is exactly what is expected from teams at this level. Aaron Ramsdale made a great save from John Stones, whose header was parried well by our goalie, which led to a City corner, the first one of the second half. The subsequent corner was cleared, and we managed to compose ourselves well with some clever midfield play. Ruben Dias foulded Bukayo Saka out on the right flank, and our free-kick from Gabriel Marinelli flew over the City defenders for a goal kick, which was a wasted effort, really. Our captain was seen gesturing to the fans asking for more vocal support, and after an Arsenal corner, Gabriel was booked by the referee for what appears to have been obstruction, and shortly afterwards, our new sigining Declan Rice showed his quality by running back into our own half to win the ball, which pleased our supporters immensely, of course. Phil Foden found Cole Palmer and his shot was deflected up and wide by the knee of Jurrien Timber, which was an excellent block from our new defender. Leandro Trossard and Kieran Tierney replaced Gabriel Martinelli and Jurrien Timber with fifteen minutes of the match remaining. A couple of minutes later, Manchester City took the lead with a Cole Palmer left-footed shot from just inside the penalty area, and then Declan Rice was replaced by Eddie Nketiah as the game entered the final ten minutes. Aaron Ramsdale made a fantastic point-blank save from Phil Foden at close range to deny the England man a goal, and then he made another superb save from Kevin de Bruyne, which was a truly amazing feat. Gabriel and Kai Havertz were replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe and Fabio Vieira with just three minutes on the clock of normal time remaining. Amazingly, there were eight minutes injury time awarded, and Kieran Tierney swung in a cross which came to Fabio Vieira at the corner of the penalty area, but his cross was headed away by Kyle Walker, who clashed heads with Thomas Partey; both players fell to the ground, and within no time at all, both sets of physios and medical people were on the pitch to treat them, which led to six more minutes injury time now. Both players returned to the action, visibly bandaged, and we started to pressurise them late in the game. Anyway, right at the death, Leandro Trossard had the ball on the edge of the penalty area and everyone was expecting a cross; instead he cut inside and blasted a shot in which it took a huge deflection off Manuel Akanji and beat the wrong-footed Stefan Ortega for our equaliser! Such drama! Just seconds later, referee Stuart Attwell blew the whistle for full-time, which now means a penalty shoot-out. Our captain took the first penalty and scored, then Kevin de Bruyne’s shot hit the crossbar, amazingly. Our goalscorer Leandro Trossard scored to gain the advantage, and then Bernardo Silva sent our goalkeeper the wrong way to score City’s first penalty. Bukayo Saka slotted the ball confidently into the back of the net, whilst Rodri’s shot was well saved by Aaron Ramsdale. Advantage Arsenal! Fabio Vieira scored, to win the Community Shield by four penalties to one! Superb achievement!
A fantastic way to start off the season. Okay, it was not exactly a classic match, but who cares? We beat the Premiership champions at Wembley Stadium to pick up a trophy, which is most welcome. All of our new signings looked good today, and as usual, Aaron Ramsdale was absolutely immense in the goal and saved our skins on several occasions. The boys looked good overall, and picking up a trophy this afternoon means that we can go into next Saturday afternoon’s match against Nottingham Forest in the opening game of the 2023-24 season with our heads held high and our tails firmly in the vertical position. Well done chaps, we are all proud of you!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Nottingham Forest at the Emirates on Saturday, 12th August at 12.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
We released our first set of #Arsenal inspired shin pads last week!
Football sort of returns today as we face Manchester City in the Glorified Friendly Shield.
Long term readers of the blog will know I do not think the Community Shield is a trophy worthwhile shouting about. It is just a step up from the Emirates Cup.
Not really sure when fans began celebrating the Community Shield and counting it as a genuine trophy. My gut is it was in and around when Jose Mourinho was putting up 3 fingers to signify how many trophies he had won whatever season it was.
Today is basically the final preperation game before the season starts properly next week, and Mikel Arteta has some selection headaches.
Aaron Ramsdale will start in goal. That is one thing I am sure of. Whilst William Saliba and Gabriel will be the central defensive partnership. But who is playing full back will be Arteta’s first selection decision.
With no Olexsandr Zinchenko, Arteta must decide whether to go for the other natural left back – Kieran Tierney – or go with one of his right backs.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jurrien Timber have both seen game time at left back in pre-season, as has centre back Jakub Kiwior. But whilst KT has not yet started a game in pre-season at left back, he has played in all 5 games and no one sle has played more minutes:
KT: 194 minutes played at left back Timber: 132 minutes Kiwior: 109 minutes Tomiyasu: 46 minutes
And who he picks at left back will impact who he has available at right back and vice versa.
If the decision at left back is KT, then that will see Arteta have the choice of Ben White, Timber and Tomiyasu at right back. And likewise if he goes for White at right back, it free’s the other two up for left back.
I think he will go with Ben White at right back (he has started 3 out of 5 pre-season games) and then I think we might see Jurrien Timber get a run out at left back.
As it is only a pre-season game, I would expect both Tomiyasu and Tierney to come on with around half an hour to go.
The midfield is also filled with uncertainty, with only Martin Odegaard assured of his position.
The recruitment of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz gives Arteta an attacking and defensive option when setting up his midfield. I expect us to go with Rice, Havertz and Odegaard in games we dominate, and Partey, Rice and Odegaard in games where we need a bit more defensive steel.
If this was a regular game versus Man City, I am sure Arteta would go with the defensive option and play Partey and Rice. But as this is pre-season, I think he might test out that more attacking midfield. Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard to start, with Partey coming on at some point which will push Rice further forward.
Bukayo Saka starts. It will be a toss up between Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard on the left. I imagine Martinelli will start and Trossard will be a supersub this season.
With Gabriel Jesus injured, Arteta will stick with Eddie Nketiah leading the line, although he does have the option of Trossard and Havertz.
When Partey is bought on, it might actually end up being for Nketiah and we see Havertz pushed further forward as a striker.
You’re allowed 6 substitutions in the Community Shield, so Tomiyasu, Tierney, Kiwior, Partey and Trossard should all see some game time. The 6th will be a toss up between Jorginho, Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira.
Ultimately, the result does not matter.
Last season, Liverpool destroyed Manchester City and then finished 22 points behind them.
I am just looking forward to a good day out at Wembley. Some beers with the mates. And hopefully a bit better weather than yesterday!
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 