Kevin De Bruyne, and Rodri Missed Penalties – Arsenal beat Man City on penalties to win the dramatic Community Shield

Arsenal scored a last minute equaliser to take the Community Shield to penalties and then downed Manchester City in the shoot out in dramatic scenes at Wembley

Cole Palmer looked to have won the game for City when the substitute curled in a superb goal on 77 minutes, but as the game went deep into injury time the Gunners struck back.

11 minutes after the 90 another substitute, Leandro Trossard, got hold of a short corner, cut into the box and had a pop at goal which was deflected past goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, taking the game to pens.

There was a surprise early in the shoot out as Kevin De Bruyne hammered his penalty against the cross bar after Martin Odegaard had opened the scoring for Arsenal.

Trossard and Bukayo Saka made no mistake for Arsenal before Rodri saw his effort saved by Aaron Ramsdale, allowing Fabio Vieira to score the winner and complete a 4-1 win on penalties.

It may be a pre-season contest, but there were wild celebrations from the Arsenal side after downing the team which broke their hearts at the end of the last campaign.

 

It was a recognisable Manchester City line-up, with just one new arrival in Mateo Kovacic slotting into the midfield alongside Rodri after joining from Chelsea this summer.

The match was played with an interesting level of competitiveness, as neither side really played at the pace and with the zip you would expect from a Premier League contest, but there were some feisty, physical challenges going in from both sides.

Probably more interesting than the action in the first half was the new guidelines the referee was following as he dished out yellow cards.

Both Thomas Partey and Julian Alvarez were booked for kicking the ball away, which has long been a rule, but is being applied more strictly this campaign.

Mikel Arteta was also booked on the Arsenal bench for insisting Rodri should be shown a yellow.

New Arsenal signing Kai Havertz did have a couple of good chances in the first period, both of which he spurned as his move from Chelsea does not appear to have made him any more ruthless in front of goal, although he also picked up a yellow for chopping down John Stones.

 

Manchester City were not very threatening at all, with the Gunners looking more likely and it wasn’t until after the break that City managed a shot on target.

Stones was the man to produce it, with a powerful header from a corner that was well saved by Aaron Ramsdale.

The changes began coming thick and fast as the second half wore on, after no substitutions at half-time, and there was more urgency from the Premier League champions thanks to some impetus from the bench.

It was a trio of subs involved in the build up to the opening goal, as Kieran Tierney cut out a through ball but could only nudge it to Kevin De Bruyne who nodded the ball to Cole Palmer.

There was a huge amount for the 21-year-old to do on the right-hand corner of the penalty box, but he cut in on his left and curled an effort into the far top corner, past the diving Ramsdale.

City were more in their stride by this point and even after scoring they looked the more likely, with Phil Foden missing a good chance as his effort from close range was well blocked by Ramsdale.

It looked all over for the Gunners before Trossard’s last gasp equaliser and then the one-sided penalty shoot out.