Mourinho has fresh dig at Wenger

An abject Champions League campaign ended last season before the quarterfinals at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain, delaying Mourinho’s bid to become the first manager to win European football’s top prize with three different clubs after successes with Porto and Inter Milan. “I believe today, yes, we defended, because maybe it was a psychological hurdle Chelsea had in the head of my players; we were concerned at 1-0 up to protect our lead rather than to play“. So did we by winning the league.

Previous big game encounters saw Arsenal try to impose their possession based tiki taka style of football on the opposition only to be sucker punched by pin point counter attacks, Chelsea and Manchester United in particular used this tactic to much success in the past.

Chelsea defender Gary Cahill says Arsenal will be title contenders this season.

The sprightlier of the two teams, Arsenal were good value for their win and would have prevailed more comfortably had Thibaut Courtois not produced late saves to thwart Santi Cazorla and Kieran Gibbs.

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho played down his decision not to shake hands with Arsene Wenger at full time of the Community Shield. Petr Cech is set to make his competitive debut for Arsenal after making the switch from Stamford Bridge he spent eleven years.

The only push last season came in the form of a shove on the touchline from Wenger and the Frenchman made it clear he is in no mood to end the feud between the pair, following this success.

Chelsea were without Diego Costa, and neither Loic Remy nor new signing Radamel Falcao gave many indications that they are ready to step into his shoes.

“I cannot reassure. The only thing I can reassure is that he is working well and hard and everybody around him is thinking about helping him“.

The winger’s powerful finish was Arsenal’s first goal against Chelsea in 506 minutes, and ended the Blues’ eight-match unbeaten run against them.

“It’s good for confidence”, he said. “As long as I get it served every time in press conferences, it can have an impact on my team”.

“That’s the mentality I was brought up in, that’s the same from the manager on a daily basis”.

“Of course, it is not the most important game but we want to win and compete”.