Takeaways from Arsenal’s mostly meaningless win over Manchester City

The Community Shield is an odd little beast. Not quite real game, not quite friendly, the top flight’s traditional curtain raiser operates on a stage of its very own. On the inside, it’s the most important thing in the world, replete with flamethrowers and wonder-goals and trophy-raising and all the trappings of a major trophy. On the outside, it’s a tarted-up joke, draped in misguided self importance and amusingly out-of-sync pomp. All of which makes the match itself hard to talk about and twice as hard to actually analyse.

So. Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-0 at Wembley Stadium, both sides missing significant players thanks to some combination of the World Cup and the managers wanting to save them for more important games next weekend. On the one hand, it’s a bit of an embarrassing capitulation for City, who aren’t accustomed to losing 3-0 to anyone, on the other they were fielding a centre back duo of Matija Nastasic and Dedrick Boyata, the latter apparently having been paid off by Martín Demichelis to make everyone at the club miss him. On one hand, the Gunners have another trophy, on the other, even a team starved of silverware has trouble considering the Community Shield to be A Real Thing. This is a trophy that even David Moyes has won, after all.

But even in a match which only matters on the inside, there are surely broader themes to examine. Let’s try to pick them out.