Arsenal 1 – 0 Leeds Utd
Article by Lewis Borg-CardonaClick here to follow e-Arsenal on Twitter!
In all my years as a football fan I’ve only been to two Community Shield matches: the second was last weekend; the first was in the dim and distant past, when the event was still known as the Charity Shield. Let’s not be coy about this, the first time was fully 40 years ago. The venue was the old Wembley (towers, not arch) and the competing teams were Leeds United and Liverpool.
For those of tender years, you need to know that once upon a time Leeds were the most successful club in the then First Division (yes, there was football before the Premier League). In fact so good were they, that the then pre-teen author of this piece was – whisper it sotto voce – a Leeds fan. There, I’ve said it: I’ve outed myself as a follower of Don Revie’s white and white army; as a disciple of the far from beautiful game; as a naif who thought winning was all……the Damned United indeed. Because by August 1974 Don Revie was no longer in charge; it was Brian Clough who managed Leeds at Wembley, while Liverpool were led out by Bill Shankley for the very last time, following his retirement.
It was a fixture that became famous, or rather infamous, not for the football played, but for the fact that Liverpool’s Kevin Keegan and Leeds’ Billy Bremner had an onfield spat in the sixtieth minute; were both sent off; and in the process of the walk of shame, managed to divest themselves of their shirts. All par for the course in these days of Luis Suarez, but at the time the incident was deemed scandalous, with both Bremner and Keegan pilloried in the press; and what’s more important, also damned by my dad – an ex-international footballer - sat disgustedly next to me! As for the football, the game ended 1-1 at full time, at which point the Charity Shield went to penalties for the first time and Liverpool ran out 6-5 winners.
So, 40 years later to the day, this year’s Community Shield had a lot to live up to in terms of incident, if not in terms of footballing excellence. My dad wasn’t around any longer to enjoy/endure it, but I’m still in love with the game, and of course most crucially in the intervening years I’ve seen the light and shifted allegiance from the white rose of York to the red and white arsenal of N5.
We certainly came out all guns firing on Sunday. Whatever reservations certain pundits may have had concerning the relative strength of the Man City team on show, can’t take away the fact that the Arsenal lads were first to the ball, crisper in the tackle and basically wanted it more; certainly throughout a first half in which they dominated play and scored two classy goals in the process, courtesy of Santi Cazorla and the perfectly rested Aaron Ramsey, taking up where he left off last season. Then when we didn’t have the ball, there was always fun to be had jeering poor misunderstood Samir Nasri.
As for the new boys, the initial signs were good. Alexis Sanchez took a while to get into the game from his position on the right, but still managed three dazzling dribbles during his 45 minute cameo; just enough to quicken the pulses for the season to come. Mathieu Debuchy appeared an able replacement for the man he’s already displaced from the French national team; while of the three on show (discounting Joel Campbell’s five minutes on the pitch), it was Calum Chambers at centre back who impressed most. Calm, composed and positionally strong, Chambers is someone who belies his teenage years and looks set for a long career at the Arsenal and not necessarily at right back as initially thought.
The Gunners went off the boil in the second half, as City upped the gears and began to dominate possession. But we still saw the best goal of the game against the run of play, courtesy of Olivier Giroud. He may not be fit, but proved that he doesn’t need to be to score, via a top quality strike. Quite how he was made Man Of The Match is beyond me, but if that was the most contentious decision of the day, then the seventy odd thousand at the match should count ourselves lucky.
40 years on, suffice to say my second Shield experience at Wembley was a good deal more positive than the first. The good guys won; no one was sent off; no shirts were tossed to the ground; no pasty skinned upper torsos were revealed; and the football played was a good deal better. I think even my dad might have enjoyed the day.
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