A SPORTS psychologist detected Arsenal’s genius tactic that won them the Community Shield on penalties.
The Gunners ended Manchester City’s reign of dominance at Wembley after a stunning campaign that saw Pep Guardiola’s men winning the Treble.
City looked ready to add the Community Shield to their trophy case when Cole Palmer opened the scoring on 77 minutes.
But the North Londoners levelled things up in the most dramatic way as Leandro Trossard hit the target in the 11th minute of stoppage time.
The match went straight to penalties where Mikel Arteta’s men were faultless as Matin Odegaard, Trossard, Bukayo Saka and eventually Fabio Vieira all hit the back of the net.
And sports psychologist Geir Jordet noticed that each penalty taker was using the same tactic as they stopped for over five seconds after the referee blew his whistle.
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Jordet tweeted: “Rare to see a team approach penalties so deliberately, controlled and composed as Arsenal did in the Community Shield today.
“Every player paused >5 seconds after the whistle. This never guarantees success, but it suggests a collective plan to ACTIVELY control oneself under stress.”
This comes as no surprise as Arteta revealed after the match that his team worked on penalty shoot-outs during pre-season.
The Spanish tactician foresaw that potential outcome ahead of their Wembley clash with City and wanted his players to be fully prepared.
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Arteta said: “We’ve done it [taken part in a shootout] three times in pre-season.
“It was part of the plan to get ready just in case we had to do it today, that it wasn’t the first time to do that, and I think that it paid off.”
This was Arsenal’s first trophy since 2020 after a season that saw them just missing out on their first Premier League title since 2004’s Invincibles’ campaign.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
