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Cech shines for Arsenal in Community Shield as Wenger finally beats Mourinho

Cech shines for Arsenal in Community Shield as Wenger finally beats Mourinho

In his 14th attempt, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger finally beat Jose Mourinho, who is in charge of Chelsea. As a bonus, Sunday's 1-0 win in the English season curtain raiser also gave the Gunners the 2015 Community Shield trophy. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got the game's lone tally in the first half.

There would be no handshake after the game, with neither manager looking interested in acknowledging the other with the traditional postgame congratulations.

At length, Wenger vanquished his longtime foe, with whom he's had a tense relationship for years. The managers could hardly be more different in their style and comportment. Wenger is professorial, studying his craft and tinkering with his formulas. Mourinho is more the self-taught street fighter, cheeky and provoking and scrappy. Wenger, as ever, wore a suit. Mourinho showed up in a T-shirt and track pants.

But if their differences remain striking and fascinating, it was a transaction they cooperated on this summer that seemed to have made the biggest impact on the game. After a decade of first-team duty for Chelsea, and then agreeing to stay on another year as Thibaut Courtois's backup, Mourinho let his goalkeeper Petr Cech leave for Arsenal this summer as a kind of courtesy for his service and loyalty.

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Cech exuded a rare calm in Arsenal's box, where he was preceded by a seemingly endless series of flappers and blunderers. Wenger never quite managed to adequately replace David Seaman, who left in 2003 and actually was no stranger to the occasional howler himself. In Cech, he might have an answer at long last.

In a chippy game, Chelsea mostly made the play and tried to locate the seams in Arsenal's back line, but there weren't many to be found. The Gunners, in turn, would counter with swashbuckling breaks. It was on one such play in the 24th minute that Theo Walcott found Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right side. He cut inside on defender Cesar Azpilicueta and deposited his finish into the far top corner with a splendid, left-footed finish. Arsenal hadn't scored against Chelsea in 506 minutes of play. More than 5½ games.

At the other end, Arsenal's back line proved ever so solid. With Cech behind them, the Gunners gave up few chances. Ramires nodded a Loic Remy cross wide from a promising spot. Falcao spun away from the defenders and into the path of a long ball but was closed down well. Eden Hazard was put under sufficient pressure to smash a good look high. And the Belgian's free kick was later pushed out of the top corner by Cech.

Arsenal fans seemed to quickly formulate hope that with such a big piece finally laid into the gaping hole in the puzzle, they might finally win the Premier League again. They haven't since the year after Seaman left, in 2004.

But the last four winners of the Community Shield didn't go on to win the league. Indeed, after Arsenal hammered Manchester City 3-0 in this game a year ago, they placed third, a dozen points back from Chelsea and four behind City.

If there's any point at all to this mostly symbolic game, though, it's to lend credence to a potential title-winning campaign for the winners – or, conversely, for the losers to write it off as a glorified friendly.

Arsenal fans will feel confident after Sunday. Chelsea fans won't feel much of anything.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.