The Community Shield is often labelled a ‘glorified friendly’ – but Viktor Gyokeres doesn’t appear to agree with that.
Gyokeres and Arsenal feature in the season opener this weekend as they take on Manchester City in Cardiff, live on talkSPORT.
The reigning Premier League champions will be aiming to get their hands on some more silverware after success last season.
Meanwhile, FA Cup winners Man City are in the same boat, as new boss Enzo Maresca looks to get off to a perfect start.
And it seems there is going to be no lack of competitiveness when the two rivals do battle at the Principality Stadium.
During an interview last weekend, Gyokeres was asked how Arsenal would be approaching the Community Shield.
It was suggested that they could treat it as a ‘friendly‘, but the Sweden international was bemused, asking: “What do you mean?”
After a follow-up explaining how the match can be seen as the final match of pre-season, a confused Gyokeres disagreed.
“I don’t know what other people think, but of course we want to win that game for sure,” the Gunners striker said. “There’s no question about that.”
Community Shield: talkSPORT coverage
Should all of the players involved share that same mentality, then Arsenal vs Manchester City is going to be a thriller.
The Community Shield will be played on Sunday, August 16 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, with kick-off at 3pm.
talkSPORT will have live commentary of the action from Sam Matterface and former England captain Stuart Pearce.
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TNT Sports and HBO Max will also be broadcasting the match.
Community Shield: What has been said?
It seems that the Arsenal camp is confident heading into the Community Shield, as they eye another trophy.
But Maresca is going to be hopeful too ahead of his first competitive game in charge of Man City following a strong pre-season.
City won two and drew one of their friendlies, beating Atletico Madrid 3-1 in their last game before the campaign.
“I’m very happy, especially because the players since we started have been open-minded,” Maresca said on his side’s progress. “They want to understand and want to learn why we do things.
“I know that when you join a new club you try to install new patterns or different ideas, the most important thing is we are getting better.
“But the path is a huge path to improve things. But I can see we are trying what we do in training, and we are getting better at that.”
