Arsenal concluded their pre-season in the Community Shield, the traditional curtain raiser in English football. New signing Alexandre Lacazette hit the post on his competitive debut in a first half that saw Per Mertesacker replaced after a facial injury, with new signing Sead Kolašinac making his competitive debut as Mertesacker's replacement. After an end to the first half that yielded no goals, Chelsea took an early second half lead through Victor Moses, his close-range strike coming from a poorly defended corner. Several saved shots made it appear Arsenal were going to suffer defeat, until a rash challenge by Chelsea winger Pedro saw him sent off. The resulting free-kick was headed in by Kolašinac for a debut goal, and forced a penalty shootout. Arsenal were victorious 4–1 through goals by Theo Walcott, Nacho Monreal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud, with Thibaut Courtois and Álvaro Morata missing penalties in the shootout that introduced the ABBA format. The result secured Arsenal's third FA Community Shield in four seasons.