A jubilant Mikel Arteta has claimed that his Arsenal players believe they can beat any team in the world following their Community Shield triumph over Manchester City at Wembley.
The Gunners - who were awarded a spot in the annual curtain-raiser by virtue of their second-placed Premier League finish last season - defeated Pep Guardiola's side 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the London sunshine.
Arsenal were seemingly down and out after Cole Palmer's sublime opener, but the new rules regarding added-on time were a huge benefit to Arteta's men, who equalised through Leandro Trossard in the 11th minute of second-half injury time.
The Gunners entered the penalty shootout with a psychological advantage, having defeated Monaco from 12 yards in the recent Emirates Cup and also beating Liverpool in the 2020 Community Shield on spot kicks.
Martin Odegaard, Trossard and Bukayo Saka all converted for Arsenal, who witnessed Kevin De Bruyne's effort smack the crossbar before Aaron Ramsdale kept out Rodri's penalty.
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The Englishman's save preceded Fabio Vieira's trophy-winning penalty into the top corner, and Arteta could not envisage a better scenario than beating Man City at Wembley to win a piece of silverware.
"It feels great. I don't think it gets much better than winning a trophy in Wembley against the best team in the world, and to do it the way we've done it," Arteta said in his post-match press conference, as quoted by arsenal.com.
"It's really encouraging, I think we had some great moments in the game, especially in the first half with three massive chances but unfortunately when you don't put them away, you know what can happen.
"At the end it's what the players feel and they are convinced they can beat any team. That's the challenge especially with the maturity and how often they play finals, but today I think we showed a resilience and a determination to fight and deserved to win the game."
Before making himself the hero in the penalty shootout, Ramsdale also thwarted Phil Foden from close range and produced splendid reactions to keep out a near-post Rodri header prior to Trossard's deflected equaliser.
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The Englishman's crucial contributions came amid Arsenal's apparent interest in Brentford goalkeeper David Raya, who is expected to become the Gunners' fourth summer recruit before the end of the week.
While refusing to give anything away regarding Arsenal's supposed interest in Raya, Arteta waxed lyrical about Ramsdale's "superb" performance before warning that every player in his ranks must expect competition for minutes.
"He was great and we practised penalties a lot on purpose in pre-season to be ready for this just in case. We went through disappointments against Manchester United where we didn't stop any of that, and that was the learning curve that sometimes it's needed to get the right result and I think he was superb," Arteta said of Ramsdale.
"The competition here always exists whoever it is and that's what he has to feel like. If we don't feel like this, we are not going to get the best out of each player, so we better feel like this and make sure that we all feel like this, me first."
Arsenal - who have now won the Community Shield 17 times - return to Premier League duty with their opening fixture of the 2023-24 season at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Ben Knapton
