Today I'm going back 31 years to 1991 and the showpiece Charity Shield game played at the old Wembley Stadium in front of 65,483. Over the years I have attended just five of these fixtures with the 1991 version being the most recent and being the only to feature neither Liverpool nor Everton. The 1991 edition featured the League Champions (Arsenal) against the FA Cup winners (Tottenham) and came just a few months after Spurs had spectacularly defeated Arsenal 3-1 in the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley to destroy Arsenal's hopes of doing the double. The Charity Shield therefore represented a chance for revenge for Arsenal and any North London Derby matters to the fans of the two clubs. The game was Arsenal's twelfth Charity Shield appearance and Tottenham's sixth.
The annual Charity Shield (now known as the FA Community Shield) has been played for since 1908 and pits the League Champions against the winners of the FA Cup or, in the case of the two being the same club, against the club finishing second in the League. These days, the proceeds of the match are distributed to the 124 clubs participating in the FA Cup from the First Round onwards for distribution to local good causes as well as to the FA's own charity partners. The change of name from Charity to Community Shield arose when, in 2002, the Charities Commission found that the FA had failed in its legal obligations under charity law to declare what proportion of the ticket price would be going to good causes and that it had delayed distribution of the proceeds.
The game has been played at the start of the season since 1959. Between 1949 and 1991, as in the case of the featured match, on eleven occasions the match was drawn and the Shield was shared by the two participants with each holding it for six months. It is arguable whether the Charity Shield really matters to the competing clubs. It is, in effect, a Super Cup and is recognised as such by UEFA. Some regard the game as "the first final of the season" (Pep Guardiola) but, often, one or both of the sides field a number of squad players and use the exercise as a barometer of fitness ahead of the serious business of competing for League points which begins the following week.
The featured game ended up being goalless with the Shield being shared between the two clubs. the last occasion on which this was the case since, from 1993 onwards, drawn matches went straight to penalties to determine an outright winner. Arsenal's starting eleven were all English with the exception of Irishman David O'Leary who appeared as a late replacement for the injured Englishman Steve Bould. Neither club had a particularly good season with Arsenal being deposed as Champions by Leeds United and eventually finishing fourth, outside the European qualifying places. Spurs finished in 15th position.
CRB Match No. 726
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