Great, just great. I suppose when I thought of calling this blog Positively Arsenal I should have considered how difficult that would make days like today. All summer I’ve been looking forward to carrying on where we left off , and within 45 minutes of the start of the new season the rug has been pulled from under my feet.

I know very well its just one game. I know we have great players .I know we have a great manager. I know all the positives but that was a bag of crap.

I could say we played better than United and Liverpool , but here is the problem, we didn’t play better than West Ham, and we were playing West Ham. Playing them at home on a perfect pitch on a beautiful day. We couldn’t even score a goal .

The buzz phrase this summer is “no excuses” and normally I would suggest people that say this are stupid and don’t understand the concept of random events, but as a one off game, I have to accept this is true.

All summer we have been banging on about team spirit and cohesion. Its hard to think that is the case, it looked like 11 strangers had met up and decided to have a kick about.

I mean I’m struggling here, I cant understand how so many players have a stinker all at once. Confidence should have been sky high. What went wrong?

The reality is until the first goal went in we were the better team. not by much, but we looked the most likely to score. Then that? What was that?

Arsene said “It was a collective one. I think there are many things to say about that. I knew that if the delivery was good, we would be in trouble before the free-kick was taken The concentration and the organisation was not perfect. Positionally we were too far from our goal and gave them too much distance to run into. We killed ourselves.” .

Well honestly, that’s not good enough.We had a back four and none of then are under 30 years old.How can that happen ? I don’t get it. Someone set the line there ! Who ? Cech? Per? Whoever it was they need to have a serious word with themselves.

And now to Cech ! Had Almunia done that he would have got savaged,and rightly so. And if that wasn’t enough he got his positioning all wrong for the second.However he was less culpable than AOC who gifted the ball in a dangerous area,

This isn’t getting any easier as I write.

Coquelin decided to do his worst Pirlo impression and sprayed the ball out of play time and again, almost like he was playing for line-outs. Perhaps that was because Aaron was usually nowhere near him as he seemed to want to be the No.10.

Its easy to be a smart arse with hindsight but Coquelin/Santi works, why change it?

Our passing was poor and some of the first touches were nothing short of dire.

If Arsene was worried about us being behind the curve physically then surely he should have stuck to the system that served us so well after Christmas last year and told them to keep it simple.I love Ramsey, but he need to get a grip sometimes and stop thinking he is Bergkamp on speed.

Right, its not a disaster, humiliation or a disgrace. Its a below par performance that resulted to 3 points being lost. All that is good about the club and team are still good. No point pretending its not a huge disappointment though or absolving the manager and players of any responsibility.

Sadly now the mood is down and already the team is under scrutiny and pressure. Any way we cut it up its a bad day.

A guest post from @foreverheady

All Community Shields matter, but some matter more than others.

You’d certainly wish you were playing, rather than just watching, given you only get the traditional curtain-raiser invite if you’ve won either cup or league the season before.  Other countries glamorise such ties with titles like Supercup, but the UK settled first with Charity, and then Community (reflecting a more politically correct age) to highlight the fact that for once the riches on display might help those who are a long way away from any such wealth.

Some of these games are little more than a stroll in the Wembley park, a last opportunity to put the finishing touches to the long pre-season process, especially when the previous year’s Cup has thrown up an unlikely winner, such as Wigan or Portsmouth. I suspect yesterday’s affair would have been one such game had Aston Villa done what many predicted and beaten The Arsenal in May. But of course they didn’t, and what we were left with was a Premier League marketing dream.

A London derby.

Chelsea v Arsenal. Jose v Wenger.

You see, every so often the Charity Shield throws up a game that really does matter, and which has significance far beyond the actual result.

Liverpool and Leeds in ’74 is the first I remember, the animosity between the teams palpable, but in later years Liverpool and Manchester United, Manchester United and Arsenal, Chelsea and City. Heavyweight contenders, Bull elephants circling each other, marking territory, establishing dominance.  At times all that seems missing is the dulcet tones of Sir David Attenborough, so primal are the encounters.

Last year’s Shield proves the point in reverse somehow; with several of the players still in post-World Cup drowsiness, and City clearly not rating their opponents, Arsenal secured a bloodless win that surprised one and all and which seemed at the time almost an irrelevance, such was the sense that the real title contenders were keeping their powder dry. And so it proved: although City and Arsenal eventually proved comfortably better than all the rest, the Premier League title was Chelsea’s well before Christmas.

It wasn’t like that yesterday, not like that at all. In the second half of last season’s League campaign, Wenger’s Arsenal emerged as a side to be reckoned with, a side that many felt could prove to be genuine contenders once more.  Although they never got close enough to land a proper blow, the celebrations of the Chelsea team on securing a goalless point at The Emirates in April suggested that they too had begun to see Arsenal as credible and feared opponents.

But something else was happening too I think, namely the increasing intensity of the animosity between Wenger and Mourinho.

The English game has lacked a proper feud for a while. Clough and Revie ages ago; then Clough and just about anyone; Ferguson and Keegan; Ferguson and Wenger for a while, but then, not much – to be honest the last few years have been positively beige. Van Gaal can’t be taken seriously, Pellegrino seems hardly bothered, and Arsene has not really had the team for anyone to reckon it be worth spending too much time on mind games. But it has been clear for a while that there is something about Wenger that really rankles Jose, and the feeling, it would appear, is delightfully mutual. Taunts in Press Conferences, measured and barbed responses, touchline scuffles, cold shoulders and faint praise. It has all been escalating very nicely, and if anyone thinks that as the managers led their teams out yesterday they were treating it as a friendly then I would respectively suggest that not only do they not really understand football but they haven’t a clue about human nature either.

Certainly the full-studded stamps of Ramariez on Cazorla, Ivanovic’s scything’s of Ozil and the heaviness of Coquelin’s challenges in the first several minutes suggested that pre-season was well and truly over, as did the intensity of Arsenal’s forward surge immediately after kick-off. This was a contest, and although essentially even, with both sides enjoying plenty of the ball, The Arsenal always seemed just that little bit lighter on their feet, more direct in their approach.

Close matches between top teams are decided by the smallest of details, and by moments of individual brilliance. A couple of years ago I wrote this about Mesut Ozil:  “great players make it seem like 11 against 10, for their vision reduces defences as surely as if a red card has been issued. Özil is a space maker and a game changer.” And he proved my words just right yesterday. Look again at the Arsenal goal. Ozil has the ball on the left hand flank, seemingly intent on attacking down that wing: in a moment he switches play to Theo in the middle, his pass cutting five defenders out of the game. Suddenly there is space, which Walcott maximises by immediately releasing Oxlade into the box, who then cuts inside and fires unstoppably with his weaker foot into the top corner.

It was the goal of a great striker, initially enabled by a master craftsman.

And in the end it proved the difference.

First Ramirez and then Hazard might have equalised, but only last ditch defending and great goalkeeping prevented Arsenal from stretching their lead too.

Both clubs will take things from the game.

Chelsea will point to the missing Costa, to a slight unpreparedness, to the ring-rustiness of Falcao and conclude that on another day things might well have gone differently. They have time between now and September to enter the market and acquire the players that will allow them to confidently defend their title, and I am sure they will. They probably need a centre-half, a defensive midfielder and a new striker as yesterday their spine looked vulnerable.

Arsenal will remember that they have Alexis and Wilshere to add to the mix, and will no doubt also look to strengthen and perhaps improve key positions.

I suspect that both managers will be looking at the same players and that after yesterday both clubs will be keen to back their manager’s choices. But most of all, both clubs will know that their next encounter will count for more than just another trophy of debatable worth, and that they will be playing for Premiership points and real bragging rights.

Saturday, 19^th September will see the hottest tickets in town; the battle lines have been drawn and there won’t be any charity on offer, not even a handshake.

There is no point me pretending I’m not over the moon with that win, I am.

I couldn’t give a flying that it is a friendly because there was nothing friendly about it.

They were trying to win just as much as Arsenal were. The tell tail signs were there early on when Santi had his Achilles raked. A dive in the box from Ivanović, further evidence that there was no charity involved in this encounter.

I make no apologies for thinking Chelsea are our fiercest rivals. I detest everything about the club, especially that horrible hypocrite of a manager. I love the fact that we beat them, I love it.

There is even less point me trying to review the game. All I know is we won, we were the better team and we deserved to win.

Three things that stood out the most were how much of a difference Giroud seemed to make, how good Coquelin was and Laurent Koscielny is as world class as it’s possible to be.

I am not going to predict we win the league, but I will say that there will have to be some very bad luck, on the injury front, to stop us making a genuine challenge.

So that’s it, my comprehensive match report. I hope you all enjoyed it.

So the long close season is drawing to an end, the evenings are shortening, arable crops stand tall and golden in the fields, cheery yokels chew on a shared stalk of straw by my gate, and the slamming of the transfer window is no longer the distant dream it was a billion tweets ago. Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Shedding the sleepy early Summer shroud we must prepare ourselves for another season supporting our club, mountains to climb, let us get to work then:

What did I learn from this weekend ?

As Stew said yesterday and we all know, the thrashing of Lyon and what was a much more interesting game against Wolfsburg a pleasant interlude. I expected more from Lyon but they were knocked out of their stride and suddenly found the game lost. Wolfsburg were a much better work-out, the first half an hour was particularly tricky. We looked a little unsure of one another in that opening, a little rattled. We settled though, we took control. Nacho probably did as much running as I have seen him ever do in 90 minutes. The Germans controlled the ball well and do not give it away. We shall come to more of that below. What they lacked was a really sharp striker, but you know that.

Both sides are in the hat for CL group stages. We may see them again. There will be tougher opponents who do not fold as Lyon did. Mossy will not always be as obliging as he recently has been.

The evidence yesterday and today confirms that we enjoy a squad of formidably talented individuals, technically the best squad I can remember. And beyond the first eleven another what ? …. eight, nine or more players who could come in and do as good a job as those who are on the team sheet.

Clockwork, very fast clockwork. They enjoy an excellent understanding of each other’s movement and pace, short and long passes are pinged about. And did you see the finishing yesterday ??? Oh my ! Arsene has taken several years to assemble this selection of players. It has taken time, it has taken patience, there have been errors, and so often progress of the team has been set back through injury. The dish seems just about ready to serve.

And that perhaps brings us to a second thing I learned yesterday. The necessity of ensuring that players are fit, physically and mentally, for a full season of football when the contest gets underway. For the first time we embark upon a season with neither a) numbers of key players knackered because of summer competitive commitments, or b) carrying long term injuries that will bar them for months from contributing. The players looked, to me, rested, confident, and ready. That has not always been the case.

And the third valuable learning experience ? Well this youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide must have made a hell of an impact in training, on coaching staff and manager. To get at his age and experience from new recruit from the admittedly highly rated Lens academy, and never having played a game for the French side, on to the Emirates pitch in six weeks as a starter is not usual, is untypical, is downright odd. We have a LOT of teenage talent and most of them have served their time. Iwobi I see joined the club at eight years old. Young Jeff’s rapid progress caught my eye even though, by the time he did get on yesterday, the game had lost its fizz. Today though he was a central figure, made Theo’s goal, a creative player and so strong for a 17 year old. One point of concern though, the name “Jeff”, is that French ??

One pot down, I admit is was a little embarrassing not having won the Ems Trophy since 2010

And what do we think the next week will bring ?

Sunday – Chelsea at Wembley of course. 3.00 Kick off time as it should be. Checking the records we have never played them in the Charity or Community Shield at the stadium. During the Millennium years there was just one meeting, in August 2005, with the Fulham Broadway posse winning 2-1. Jose’s only Community Shield, their winner from Droggie, our goal from the 18 year old prodigy Fabregas and, according to the match reports I looked at today, an excellent performance from Peter Cech keeping us at bay in the final quarter. Oh for the wheel to turn the full circle next Sunday.

A step back though from the edge of the wishing well.

Like just about everyone, everywhere ( including a number of CFC fans I know) most people consider Jose Mourinho to be the incarnation of football evil, a man who consciously sets out to destroy any semblance of art or beauty in the game. He almost invented bus parking in modern football with Inter. He acquires and discards footballers like disposable paper hankies. He treats opposing manager, often former colleagues and mentors, with contempt.

Not only does Jose have that satanic core running through him like a stick of rock but, unforgivably, the man keeps winning trophies. He is not lucky, he works hard. He uses the massive resources he is given well. And each time we anticipate bagging the bastard, cutting him down and mounting his smug Portuguese head on the library wall, he eludes the hunters. He even, once or twice, contrives to get the hunters to shoot each other in the head. I wince at the recollection, for the 1,000^th time.

But what Jose is very good at is setting up his football team to stifle the opposition, to stop them winning. No side managed by Jose ever is profligate with the football. They keep it and keep it. ( Rather like Wolfsburg but with a greater propensity for violence) At worse Jose’s approach ensures a share of the points, at best his cautious control of the ball allows his side, if they can force a chance or error, to win.

So this week Jose will be working very hard indeed. He will be looking at the tapes of yesterday and of our closing games last season, and from his careful and shrewd analysis setting up Chelsea next week as the immovable object against which our artists will batter themselves to exhaustion. It has worked so often before, will it work on the 2^nd of August ? The Community Shield will be no friendly, it will be no sham display, at the end of the game there will be a trophy won by the better side with plenty of sweat expended.

Enjoy your week.