Olivier Giroud scored the winning spot-kick as Arsenal won the 2017 FA Community Shield 4-1 on penalties, after misses by Thibaut Courtois and Alvaro Morata for Chelsea.
The victory comes seventy-one days after Arsenal defeated Chelsea to win FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium – coming up with a performance that again displayed a combination of resilience and ruthlessness.
Goals from Victor Moses and an equaliser from Arsenal substitute Sead Kolasinac meant the teams ended the 90 minutes level in a match from which few conclusions can be drawn.
That took the match into penalties and, via the new Fifa-approved ABBA system, Arsenal triumphed 4-1 with their collective joy erupting after Olivier Giroud rammed the decisive spot-kick past Thibaut Courtois.
With no extra-time, penalties ensued and for some reason, Conte selected Courtois to take their second effort: the gamble didn’t work as he blazed his effort over.
Record signing Morata – a late substitute – dragged a poor effort wide moments after Courtois had blazed over in a first use of a new penalty shootout system.
The winner takes it all in ABBA format…
Designed to prevent a perceived advantage to the team going first, the system sees team A take the first kick followed by team B – before team B go again. Team A then get two successive penalties, a little like the tie-break in tennis, and so on until there is a winner.
Confused? You are not alone as not even the players seemed to understand.
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