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LONDON (Reuters) – Arsenal beat Liverpool 5-4 on penalties on Saturday to lift the FA Community Shield, the backdrop to the English national season, after the two teams drew 1-1 on a chilly afternoon at Wembley .
Gunners captain and top scorer of the match, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, shot the late afternoon penalty to complete the North London team’s second win over the league champions in the space of six weeks after a short break. Of summer.
“We are improving. There is still work to be done, but I am really happy and it is an exciting time to be an Arsenal player,” Aubameyang told BT Sport after the match. It was the Gunners’ second trophy a month after the team’s FA Cup final victory over Chelsea on August 1.
The match, played each summer between the league and the FA Cup winner of the season that just ended, was very even and at times quite slow.
Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk had an early attack ruled offside before Arsenal’s opener, a well-crafted move to escape the high pressure from the champions.
Bukayo Saka took the ball down the field to the right, crossed all the way to Aubameyang on the far left, and the Gabon forward leapt forward and launched a perfect shot out of reach of Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson in the opposite corner. .
Liverpool’s attack seemed disjointed in contrast. As they pushed Arsenal back onto the field for long stretches, they failed to put together a single shot on goal in the first half.
Liverpool’s Japanese substitute Takumi Minamino finally tied the tie in the 73rd minute with a shot from close range, scoring his first goal in 15 appearances since arriving in Merseyside in January from Red Bull Salzburg.
“If we had scored earlier that would have helped … We had our great moments, which we didn’t finish, so that’s the result,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp told reporters.
Mohamed Salah, Fabinho, Minamino and substitute Curtis Jones all scored for Liverpool on penalties, but fellow substitute Rhian Brewster fired his shot, his first touch of the ball, off the crossbar.
Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Cedric Soares and David Luiz all scored for the Gunners before Aubameyang passed his shot over Alisson to seal the victory for the Londoners.
When asked if he will renew his contract with Arsenal that currently expires next summer, Aubameyang, his top scorer of the last two seasons, remained enigmatic: “We will see it these days. Today we take the trophy, that that’s it. . “
Gunners manager Mikel Arteta was more positive about Aubameyang’s contract and the team as a whole, saying: “I’m trying to do my job, which is to convince him that he’s in the right place. I’m pretty sure he’s going to sign”.
“It is no exception when we consistently beat the teams we have in the last two months,” he said, although he added: “We have aspects of our game that we have to improve.”
(Reported by Hugh Lawson; Editing by Frances Kerry, Andrew Heavens, and Pritha Sarkar)
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