Saturday, 1 August 2015

Arsenal gear up for Community Shield clash with Chelsea as Petr Cech prepares to face former club for first time since £11m move

The Arsenal squad were showing no signs they were feeling the pressure ahead of Sunday's Community Shield showdown with Chelsea as they put the finishing touches to their preparation. Arsene Wenger put his players through their paces for the final time before the Premier League curtain-raiser at the club's London Colney training ground on Saturday. The Gunners have been in fine form during pre-season and were in relaxed mood during Saturday's session as they bid to lay down a marker against the Premier League champions six days before the new campaign begins. Arsenal have every reason to head into the match against Jose Mourinho's title-winners in high spirits after winning the Emirates Cup by thrashing Lyon 6-0 before beating Bundesliga club Wolfsburg last Sunday. The north London club are looking to win their third piece of silverware at Wembley after also claiming the Barclays Asia Trophy following a 3-1 win against Premier League rivals Everton in Singapore earlier this summer.Summer signing Petr Cech worked alongside fellow goalkeepers David Ospina, who ended last season as the club's No 1, and third choice Emiliano Martinez as he prepared to face his former club for the first time since his £11m switch across London. Wenger has not beaten Mourinho in 13 meetings between the two managers, with the pair regularly exchanging war of words during their time as rivals in the Premier League.The Chelsea boss raised the stakes again by claiming by now he would have solved the problems dogging Wenger in his winless run against the Portuguese were their roles reversed. But former Arsenal defender Martin Keown believes the latest jibes will be water off a duck's back to Wenger, paling into insignificance alongside previous criticisms where Mourinho branded the French manager a 'voyeur' and a 'specialist in failure'. 'I think he's just being mischievous there,' Keown said. 'He has had a go at Wenger on more than one occasion, so this is quite light compared to some of the comments he's made about him 'So I think Arsene would probably be happy with that in relation to everything else. 'There wouldn't be too many managers that could lay claim to the kind of record that Mourinho has against Wenger. 'Like any record that you have, when Arsenal went unbeaten for the whole season, you start to feel like you're invincible, and you're never going to concede a goal or lose a game. 'And Jose will start to feel that way, and I'm sure such is his ego that he'll feel that way about his team. 'But he prepares his team not to fail against Arsenal. And he'll be doing that this weekend. He's very proud of that record, it's an outstanding record. 'Whether it's a hang-up for Wenger I don't think so, I think it's more of a case of beating Chelsea.


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