London : Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was ecstatic with his side's Community Shield title, saying that the team was incredible in its execution of attack and added that the match was a "good test" for the team. Premier League champions Arsenal made a fine start to their season, securing a 3-0 win over Manchester City to win the Community Shield title for the 18th time at Cardiff.
Speaking after the match, as quoted by Arsenal's official website, "I am really happy, so happy with the performance, with the desire that we showed and the manner that we competed. It was a good test for us to understand where we were, and to win it in a manner that we've done it against this opposition, I think credit to the boys."
"We wanted to attack the game - we talked about it very early yesterday. We prepared certain things we wanted to achieve in the game, and the execution of the boys was incredible," he added. Arteta also said that he was happy with how the team managed to "track back" and the way they went about with "certain actions" even if they missed a certain things and are "still far from perfect" due to a bit of inexperience in the squad.
Mikel handed full debuts to Christos Tzolis and Bruno Guimaraes, with Tzolis setting up goals from Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard Reflecting on the debutants, Arteta said, "I think they were outstanding. Christos has shown largely what he's capable of doing. He needs to bring that to the Premier League, and he is given every sign that he is going to do it because he's so consistent, so composed in and around the box."
With the Premier League kick-off against Coventry just five days away, the sight of red and white confetti has given Arteta motivation and hope that this latest success will drive his players to bigger things in the 2026-27 season.
"When you win something big like this, you fight so much for it, and you go through that emotion, you win it again, and you want it again. That is what we want. We need to push everybody every single day because if the standards are at that level, we are going to make each other better, and we have an incredible squad, so let us go for it," he said.
"We know what the Premier League brings, and it is a huge challenge every week, and Coventry is going to be a big one on Friday. So now we have to recover after a massive shift today. But I really liked, again, the desire and the will that the team showed," he signed off.