Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal players demonstrated their hunger to defend the Premier League title in their Community Shield triumph over Manchester City. Arsenal, who ended their 22-year wait last season and are seeking to win back-to-back top-flight titles for the first time since 1934-35, beat City 3-0 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in Enzo Maresca’s first significant match in charge. Riccardo Calafiori opened the scoring after 24 seconds, the fastest goal in the competition since Bobby Owen’s strike for City in 1968, before Kai Havertz doubled Arsenal’s lead and their captain, Martin Ødegaard, completed the scoring on 48 minutes.
The 3-0 defeat represented the joint-heaviest loss for a City manager in their first game in charge, with Harry Newbould the most recent to suffer a three-goal opening defeat – 4-1, also to Arsenal, in 1906. It is also Maresca’s joint-heaviest defeat as a manager in England. Arteta was delighted with Arsenal’s convincing display.
I’m very impressed in the manner that we played, in the manner that we competed. That’s the standard for us. If we drive the standards at this level, I’m sure that we’re going to be really, really competitive.” Asked about the desire displayed by his team, he said: “Because we want to go straight again.
The desire comes [because] I want to live that moment again. I want to live other moments, even bigger than them … we know what it’s going to take. We know the difficulty of the task.
We’ve never done it at this club, to win it again. We know that it’s going to demand something special and we are ready for it.” Arteta praised the performance of Christos Tzolis, who was involved in all three goals. He was decisive.” Ødegaard said the team’s performance was evidence they are capable of winning back-to-back titles.
I always want to help the team as much as possible with goals and assists. I want to score more goals. We showed our level today.
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