Pearce slams ‘pathetic’ Arsenal hero as the Gunners beat Man City in the Community Shield final

Former England international Stuart Pearce insists he would have sent off “pathetic” Riccardo Calafiori as Arsenal beat Manchester City in the Community Shield final.

After winning the Premier League title last season, Arsenal got the new campaign off to the perfect confidence-boosting start by beating the Citizens at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Calafiori put Arsenal ahead on 23 seconds to stun Enzo Maresca’s Man City side before Kai Havertz added another from close range before the break.

Martin Odegaard, who had been linked with a move away from the Emirates Stadium over the summer, produced a wonderful goal only three minutes into the second half to put Arsenal 3-0 up and secure the Community Shield.

Despite Calafiori’s brilliant performance, the Italy international did cause some controversy with the scoreline at 1-0.

Calafiori challenged Man City defender Abdukodir Khusanov for the ball inside the box, before going down, with Arsenal fans appealing for a penalty.

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However, Arsenal star Calafiori was booked for simulation after referee Samuel Barrott immediately blew his whistle for a free-kick to Man City.

And former Man City defender Pearce was furious at “pathetic” Calafiori and insisted that the Italian defender should have been sent off.

Pearce said on talkSPORT: “Well, Khusanov went down very early, kept his feet away from it.

“And it was nothing more than a pathetic dive, it really was.

“Listen, if I was Calafiori and you look at the referee and you claim it’s a penalty, I’d give him a double yellow for that and get him off.

“If you’re going to outlaw diving in the game… that was pathetic.”

Speaking of Arsenal’s performance, Calafiori told TNT Sports: “It was such an important game and an important test for us. It was to show our mentality after last season.

“Amazing. It helps the team a lot when you score that early.

“I try always to give a solution to my team-mates. The pass was unbelievable. Myles gave me the perfect ball. It’s 70% him and 30% me.

“Christos was one of the best players on the pitch today. It’s close to perfection this kind of performance.”

Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta was also enthused by his side’s display, he added: “I’m really happy, so happy with the performance, with the desire that we showed and the manner that we competed. It was a good test for us to understand where we were, and to win it in a manner that we’ve done it against this opposition, I think credit to the boys.

“We wanted to attack the game – we talked about it very early yesterday. We prepared certain things we wanted to achieve in the game, and the execution of the boys was incredible.

“What I love is that we missed certain things because we are still far from perfect in certain areas, as some players are new and they don’t have the timing right, but the way we tracked back, for example, and the way we went to certain actions, it was just a joy to watch.”

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