Mikel Arteta says the champions’ mentality of his side helped them thump Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City 3-0 in Cardiff to lift the Community Shield.
Arsenal made an instant impact in just one minute thanks to Riccardo Calafioriwho opened the scoring. Arsenal’s new signing Christos Tzolis was the provider for the second and third goals. The Greek first headed across goal for Kai Havertz to net the second before assisting captain Martin Odegaard for the third.
A flying start to 26/27 🙌
Enjoy our FA Community Shield win again 📺 pic.twitter.com/WTg9id8m44
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 16, 2026
Arteta’s Reaction
Reacting to the emphatic win, Arteta cited his team’s winning mentality and hunger for more laurels as their ultimate motivation.
“I think it’s down to the preparation that we’ve done in pre-season, and the decisions that the boys have taken after the World Cup to continue to get prepared, to come early because they wanted to be part of this. They really wanted to win the competition because it’s something that we earned last year, the chance to play against City here.
I’m very impressed with the manner that we played, especially in the manner that we competed, so that’s a standard for us. If we drive the standards at this level I’m sure that we’re going to be really, really competitive”.
The perfect start to 26/27 👊 pic.twitter.com/a7v0pCric4
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 16, 2026
Arteta further shed light on the psychological edge they had over Manchester City.
“Probably there’s more belief. You know how to do it, you know what it takes to win it and the contribution of everybody because last season that was the biggest asset of the team: that every single player contributed to make us champions. We know that’s going to be exactly the same”.
Looking Ahead
The Spaniard also expressed willingness to win retain the Premier League title this coming season.
“Because you want to go through it again, the desire comes, I want to live that moment again and I want to live other moments even bigger than them and we know what it’s going to take.
We know the difficulty of the task, that’s why we’ve never done it in this football club to win it again, so we know that it’s going to demand something special and we are ready for it”.
