Szczesny - We're in good shape now

Wojciech Szczesny feels Arsenal are in good shape ahead of the new season following Sunday's 3-0 Community Shield victory over Manchester City.

First-half goals from Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey, plus Olivier Giroud's fine strike after the break, put the gloss on what was an encouraging performance at Wembley against the Premier League champions.

While the main emphasis in pre-season is on fitness, Szczesny was impressed by the team's display.

"We wanted to win the game but I think what's important is that we're ready to start the season - and we're looking strong," the goalkeeper said. "But we're not reading too much into it.

"I just thought we defended really well. You have to give credit to our back four and the whole team shape. I thought we defended really well and we limited them to a couple of chances. Rather than talking about their lack of threat, I talk about our good defensive performance.

"I think we controlled the game more with just Mikel [Arteta] in that holding role. We managed to control the game very well and that gave us more confidence defensively as well."

Szczesny was impressed with the contributions of new signings Mathieu Debuchy, Calum Chambers and Alexis Sanchez at Wembley, and is pleased with Arsene Wenger's summer business so far.

"I thought they did really well," Szczesny said. "They've been around [the club] for a while now. Alexis is very dangerous - a very quick player. Calum is really solid. He's only 19 as well so for him to make his debut for Arsenal at Wembley and do so well is very good to see. Mathieu has a lot of experience so we expect him to perform at that level all the time.

"Except for Thomas [Vermaelen on Saturday], we've not lost any key players. Even if someone did leave on a free, we've managed to replace them with good players. As I said, we're looking stronger and stronger and we're very happy with that."