Arsenal win the Community Shield
Arsenal win the Community Shield
Plus, Olive and Velma have started cuddling together
Hello,
And welcome more or less to the start of a new season. Now before I get into it, I just want to warn everyone that immediately after the Community Shield ended, I went and saw Oppenheimer. So there might be some mixing of the two in my brain. Maybe in my recollection, Veiria scored the winning penalty, immediately pulled out a cigarette, put on a fedora, and said “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Anywho, onto the good stuff. Arsenal’s week started out with the much-deserved unveiling of Arsene Wenger’s statue outside of the Emirates. He was the guest of honor at the Emirates Cup and returned the following day to visit his statue.
"I was always animated by the energy of working for something that’s bigger than me. Overall, I feel that my contribution was to make this club what it deserves to be: one of the biggest clubs in the world. So, when I come now and I see the stadium, I see my work was worth it because I feel that this stadium made me suffer. I’m happy to stand in the shade of this stadium because I had some sleepless nights because of it!
"But overall, it’s great to see it and come back to see such a fantastic atmosphere now, with our fans and with the team doing well. For me, it’s a great satisfaction."
Arsene Wenger via Arsenal dot com
I will say that every time that man references to Arsenal as “we” or “our” I still get butterflies in my stomach. No different than when my crush let me borrow her pen in middle school.
One final thing before we get into the Community Shield, Aaron Ramsdale had a beautiful article in the Players’ Tribune. You should read it.
Anywho, the Community Shield. As Andrew and James were discussing on the Arsecast Extra recently, it’s a match that means nothing if you lose and everything if you win.
The match started out with Man City controlling the tempo and Arsenal getting used to the new officiating guidelines, which at one point resulted in Rodri fouling an Arsenal player and Arteta getting a yellow card.
Arsenal grew into the match, but it was Man City who scored first. It was a good finish, whatever. Arsenal equalized very late thanks to a Trossard worldie massive deflection. In the penalty kicks, Rodri, who had somehow gone the entire match without a card, missed a penalty kick which set up Vieira for his Oppenheimer moment.
A trophy to start the season and I think more importantly, showing ourselves that we can beat City. Put. it. in. my. veins.
Anywho, this week’s pet photos and etc are below,
Poorly
Community pet drawing:
At the end of each week, on the discord, I ask for pictures of your pets and I select one to draw.
I Illustrated a Book:
Speaking of Wenger, a reminder that I’ve illustrated a book! It is about the invincibles and was written by Dave Seager who was written five Arsenal books. There are 39 drawings in the book, plus if you pre-order now you get a free calendar which is a fun little treat.
Free hat:
If you share this newsletter with enough of your friends, or enemies, you can get a free hat! Here’s the current leaderboard.
Olive and Velma update:
I am happy to report that Olive and Velma have started cuddling.
The cuddling, I cannot. (I also cannot with Rodri, but for entirely different reasons.)
How cute are Velma and Olive! I’m dead from their cuddling! The Community Shield was a nice confidence boost to start the season. I think it was Ramsdale who commented that the mental block of always losing to City was gone. Speaking of Ramsdale, his Player’s Tribune essay had me in tears. I applaud his vulnerability which we don’t often see on the men’s side of footy. I think many people out in the wilds of social media tend to forget that pro athletes are people too; they have feelings, families, and things going on in their lives outside of sport. A little empathy goes a long way.
I’m excited for the season ahead, but also don’t want to get ahead of myself. Some things that seem promising but aren’t the big topics of conversation like the new signings, is that ESR is getting some minutes and looking pretty good; Fabio Viera got to be the penalty kick hero and is gaining in confidence on the pitch. I like that physically Viera seems to be less frail than before. He gets a lot of heat from the fanbase, but I’d love to see him succeed and have a Xhaka-like turnaround.