Alexis Sánchez was one of three players who made their competitive debuts for Arsenal in the match; for Manchester City, goalkeeper Willy Caballero was selected ahead of Joe Hart.

Arsenal scored their third of the match soon after the hour mark; Olivier Giroud's shot from outside the penalty box dipped over Caballero and into his goal.

He wanted his team to build on their FA Cup success and said that the Community Shield "...will be the best way to prepare for the start of the League season next week.

[14] Of Bacary Sagna's move from Arsenal to Manchester City in the summer, Wenger told reporters: "I made him a proposal to stay for three years, but he chose them.

"[15] Wenger also revealed Arsenal had received offers for defender Thomas Vermaelen;[16] on the day of the Community Shield match the player transferred to Barcelona.

[18] Pellegrini did not see the game against Arsenal as a "friendly", and expected his opponents to provide a good test for Manchester City in the Shield match and thereafter in the league season.

[30] English rock band Embrace provided pre-match entertainment and Britain's Got Talent finalist Lucy Kay sung the national anthem before the match commenced.

[33] Due to a specified pre-season programme, Pellegrini had agreed to excuse several players from the match, namely Martín Demichelis, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna, Fernandinho, Frank Lampard and Sergio Agüero.

[20] Arsenal were expected to line up similarly to Manchester City, with Ramsey as a holding midfielder, and Tomáš Rosický in an advanced role behind Olivier Giroud.

[33] Goalkeeper David Ospina was ruled out of the game with a thigh injury; German internationals Per Mertesacker, Mesut Özil and Lukas Podolski did not feature as they were given extended time off following their national side's success at the World Cup.

[20] When the teamsheets were released, Wenger's selection showed Rosický and Giroud would start the match as substitutes and competitive debuts were given to Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers and Alexis Sánchez.

[37] An Arsenal corner minutes after resulted in Manchester City reacting with a counter-attack; the ball eventually reached an unmarked Nasri in the penalty area, but the midfielder's shot on goal was blocked by Debuchy's arm.

The ball then fell to Santi Cazorla, who created space for himself and shot into the bottom right hand corner of Caballero's goal.

[39] As the game went on Manchester City began to gather momentum, with Aleksandar Kolarov finding success from attacking Arsenal's right.

[38] Despite improved play, Manchester City were losing 0–2 after 42 minutes when Sanogo began the move by keeping possession and finding Ramsey with a pass.

[39] Arsenal came close to scoring a third goal just before half-time when Sanogo and Sánchez exchanged passes near the Manchester City area, but Caballero came out of his penalty box to break up the move.

[37] Arsenal made a triple substitution before the second half commenced – Laurent Koscielny, Sánchez and Sanogo came off for Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud.

[37] Manchester City continued to fashion opportunities: Navas beat his opponent Kieran Gibbs on the right and crossed the ball in the Arsenal area.

[39] Both teams made more substitutions in the final third of the game – for Arsenal Mathieu Flamini, Rosický and debutant Joel Campbell replaced Wilshere, Cazorla and Ramsey respectively, while Manchester City brought on Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair in place of Kolarov and Navas.

[48] He admitted Arsenal had played the better football in the first half, but felt his team were much improved in the second – "we had possession and chances to score but we didn't.

[50] FA General Secretary Alex Horne hinted afterwards that the Community Shield could be played overseas, though not any time before 2018 because of the existing contract with Wembley Stadium.

"[51] An average of 860,000 viewers watched the match live on BT Sport, down by almost 2,000,000 on the previous year's Community Shield which was aired on ITV.