Dominant Arsenal thrash Manchester City in Community Shield

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http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/dominant-arsenal-thrash-manchester-city-in-community-shield-20140811-102l0q.html

Arsenal, who went nine years without a trophy before winning the FA Cup in May, collected their second piece of silverware in three months when they crushed champions Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday.

Arsenal thoroughly deserved their emphatic win in the traditional curtain-raiser to the new English season with goals from Santi Cazorla after 21 minutes, Aaron Ramsey after 42 and a stunning long-range third from Olivier Giroud just past the hour.

City were without seven players who played in the World Cup while Arsenal were missing their three German World Cup winners Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski.

But the Gunners, fielding three debutants including 35.0 million pounds ($58.71 million) striker Alexis Sanchez, were far sharper than City who look like they have plenty of work to do before the start of the new Premier League campaign next weekend.

Chilean Sanchez, bought from Barcelona to provide more firepower for Arsenal, played wide on the right and had a quiet half but showed some clever touches before being substituted at halftime.

City came closest to scoring when Stevan Jovetic headed against a post in the 52nd minute but they were generally poor and lacked an edge without the likes of captain Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and Pablo Zabaleta.