The duck is broken – Arsene Wenger finally beat Jose Mourinho as FA Cup holders Arsenal came away 1-0 winners over Premier League champions Chelsea in the FA Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday.
Thirteen times Wenger has failed to beat Mourinho, but it was 14th-time lucky for the Arsenal manager as a moment of magic from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain settled a sometimes-quality, sometimes-turgid, but mostly-entertaining tie, which acts as the curtain-raiser to the new Premier League season.
The Wenger critics, no doubt, will say this doesn't count, considering it is pretty much a glorified preseason game, but take nothing away from Arsenal's performance – they scored the opening goal, then showed good resilience to quell the Chelsea attacks in the second half.
Wenger always says the first goal in a big match more often than not decides the outcome of the match, and this first, and only, goal was certainly worthy of the winner, as Oxlade-Chamberlain, in the 24th minute, showed just why he could be capable of providing plenty of goals from midfield this season.
A nice bit of play from Arsenal, saw Mesut Ozil pass the ball to Theo Walcott, preferred to Olivier Giroud in attack again, with the forward finding his England international teammate on the right.
Oxlade-Chamberlain took a couple of touches, waited for Hector Bellerin to make a run inside him, which in turn took Nemanja Matic away, before cutting inside to his left wonderfully well to slam the ball past Thibaut Courtois.
Chelsea had a couple of chances, both to Ramires, one decent, the other golden, to get back into the game before halftime, but the first one was fired wide from just outside the box, while the second was headed over from six yards, when it really should have been buried into the net.
Petr Cech had very little to do for Arsenal, who did pretty well to nullify the threat of Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard for large parts of the match, as his old club failed to test him in the first 45, and it took them a while as well to force a first real save.
That came via an Oscar freekick, with Cech flying to his right wonderfully to keep the ball out. Apart from a couple of saves, Cech looked the part, adjusting pretty well to Arsenal's higher line and showing composure when he needed to.
It is great credit to the man that he did not let the occasion, playing against the club he was a part of for 11 years, get to him
The second half was all Chelsea really, even if Arsenal did have a couple of decent chances on the counter, with Radamel Falcao, coming in for Loic Remy, posing a bit more of a threat, while the likes of Fabregas and Hazard came into the game as well.
Watch Mourinho and Wenger Handshake Snub Video HERE
However, despite plenty of pressure, that bit of backbone that Arsenal have developed of late, came to the fore to see them through to their second consecutive Community Shield title.
