Nine years without a trophy to two pieces of silverware in two games. Not bad for Arsenal, that, not bad at all.
In yet another success story at Wembley, the Gunners returned to the ground they so dramatically won the FA Cup final against Hull City in May to turn on the style against the defending English Premier League champions Manchester City and put them to the sword with an emphatic 3-0 victory in the Community Shield.
While the curtain raiser trophy is nowhere near as important as the one that Arsenal won three months ago to silence the "they haven't won a trophy for x years" bandwagon, the manner of their victory over City, albeit a depleted City, will bode well as they look to mount a sustained challenge for the Premier League title.
Two of the players who scored in that epic FA Cup final found the net yet again on Saturday, with Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey, so cool, so calm, sending Arsenal on their way to a comfortable victory, with Olivier Giroud coming off the bench to add the gloss with a brilliant strike from distance.
Three of Arsenal's four new signings got a run-out as well, with Alexis Sanchez showing enough in his 45 minutes of action to show he will trouble Premier League defences, while Mathieu Debuchy and cannot-believe-he-is-only-19 Calum Chambers looked like they have been playing at the heart of Arsenal's defence for years.
City, with most of their star players, including Bacary Sagna, who signed for the Manchester side from Arsenal in the summer, and Frank Lampard, watching on from the stands, just did not show enough energy or quality to trouble Arsenal too much, with Manuel Pellegrini, no doubt, left with plenty of work still to do to get his side fit and ready for the new season starting next weekend.
There was only one team in the game, really, especially the first half as Arsenal kicked on from minute one, with Manchester City attacking sporadically on the counter attack.
Both teams had plenty of their star players missing, but that did not exactly quell the quality of the game, as the Gunners took control of possession and proceedings.
Sanchez was expectedly named in the starting lineup and started on the right with Yaya Sanogo given another opportunity to impress in the centre-forward role. While Sanchez did show glimmers of his pace and ability, it was Sanogo who shone just that little bit brighter, even if the signs of that rawness still refused to go away – especially with the ball at his feet.
It took 21 minutes of pressing and probing for Arsenal to unlock City's defence and it came from the boot of the man who scored that wonderful goal in the FA Cup final to key Arsenal's comeback.
Sanogo did some good old-fashioned holding up play just outside the City box, before the ball, via a tackle off Jack Wilshere, so vibrant and feisty in the central midfield role, fell to Cazorla, who dummied to create space before firing low and across Willy Caballero into the bottom corner.
City did their best to get into the game, and could have scored on a couple of occasions, with Samir Nasri, booed by the Arsenal fans every time he touched the ball, coming closest a little before the first goal went in.
However, Arsenal looked much the better side going forward in the first 45, and it was far from surprising when they doubled their lead three minutes before halftime. A quick counter-attack, with Sanchez putting Sanogo in behind, who then did well to hold off the challenge from Dedryck Boyata before slipping the ball in to Ramsey.
Once Ramsey got the ball at his feet, there was only ever going to be one result – a beautifully crisp finish past Caballero's right hand.
City needed to play better in the second half, and they did, but just not well enough to dent the marauding Gunners. Several changes were afoot at halftime, with Wenger bringing on Giroud, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Nacho Monreal for Sanogo, Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny respectively.
Wojciech Szczesny, who had very little to do in the first 45, was finally called into action seven minutes into the second half, with the Arsenal goalkeeper having to claw the ball away off a header from Stevan Jovetic after some good work down the right from Jesus Navas.
Jovetic then forced a better save from Szczesny with a strike from distance, but it was Arsenal who put the final nail in the coffin right on the hour mark with a thunderbolt from Giroud, which might or might not have taken a clip off a defender, before dipping over Caballero, preferred to Joe Hart in goal.
Fresh legs kept coming in as time wore on, but Arsenal's dominance and emphatic scoreline remained.
