Arsenal 1... Liverpool 2: Less than six weeks ago, Gilberto Silva was dancing around a Japanese stadium with a World Cup winner's medal on his chest. Yesterday, making his competitive debut in an Arsenal shirt, he came on for the second half of the renamed FA Community Shield and scored a goal which suggested his presence will make last season's double winners an even more formidable proposition.

Too much should never be read into the outcome of this traditional prologue, but the manner of Arsenal's victory will have prompted Gerard Houllier to wonder whether his Liverpool side are yet ready to win the championship, and may even have encouraged Alex Ferguson to intensify his preparations for Manchester United's campaign to regain their pre-eminence. Betraying no signs of rust, the Londoners dominated the match with the kind of slick, sweet, high-speed football that brought them new fans last year.

A Novemberish mist and several thousand empty seats greeted this annual fixture. Played since 1908 as the Charity Shield, it has apparently been renamed by the FA in order to publicise a coaching scheme launched in collaboration with a fast-food chain whose name and whose effects on the dietary habits of the world's children are sufficiently notorious known not to need any further publicity here.

No fewer than 13 nationalities were represented on the pitch, but there was not a single player in either squad from Scotland, Ireland or Wales. Among the attractions, for the watching Sven-Goran Eriksson above all, was the prospect of seeing Liverpool's English attack take on Arsenal's mostly English defence.

Arsenal were winning the trophy for the third time in five years, and even in the absence of Robert Pires, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst and Freddy Ljungberg, their midfield functioned with practised efficiency. When Gilberto Silva replaced the excellent Edu at the interval, the switch of one Brazilian for another was achieved without disturbing the side's rhythm. The new man announced himself with a perfect diagonal ball to Thierry Henry's feet, and after 68 minutes he started and finished the move that got Arsenal off to a winning start in the first match of the post-Adams era.

Arsene Wenger's team had already made and missed an abundance of chances, every one of them the product of outstanding teamwork. After 19 minutes Sylvain Wiltord fed Thierry Henry, who turned inside Dietmar Hamann on the left and curled a shot which the diving Jerzy Dudek parried at the far post. Ray Parlour clipped the loose ball back inside for Dennis Bergkamp, whose instant right-foot shot was beaten away by the keeper. Bergkamp met the rebound with a left-foot volley, only to see Dudek make a third block and turn to pounce on the spinning ball as it crept towards the line.

A minute after the interval, with Liverpool attempting to show a new urgency, a misunderstanding between Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen just outside the Arsenal area enabled the red and white shirts to mount a counterattack with devastating speed. Patrick Vieira and Bergkamp combined to send Henry bursting between Abel Xavier and Stephane Henchoz, only to see Dudek deflect his flicked shot on to the post.

The goal came after another Liverpool move had broken down in midfield, allowing Gilberto Silva to spread the ball out to Ashley Cole on the left. The full-back fed Bergkamp, whose careful cut-back was met by the Brazilian's left foot with a shot that squeezed through Dudek's legs.

In response, Liverpool had little to offer their supporters in the crowd of 67,334. They waited almost half an hour to produce their first chance, a shot from Emile Heskey that bounced off David Seaman's chest, although they might have taken the lead just before the hour when the referee, Alan Wiley, refused a penalty after Parlour appeared to hold Owen back by the shirt as Gerrard's inswinging corner skidded past the far post.

The introduction of El Hadj Diouf, bought for £10m from Lens after starring in Senegal's dramatic World Cup campaign, proved inconclusive. Beginning as though he intended to play in the space behind Owen and Emile Heskey, he soon moved out to a position wide on the right, from where he tried to run at Cole.

As Ariel Ortega and Javier Zanetti can attest, this is no cakewalk. The first time Diouf succeeded in getting past the left back, Owen met his cut-back with a comprehensive mis-hit. On the second occasion, Diouf tried to hurl himself over Vieira's outstretched legs and received an angry lecture from Highbury's Senegalese-born Frenchman.

Whether he is the answer to Liverpool's lack of a truly influential creative player, or whether he is instead a replacement for Nicolas Anelka as a pacy strike forward, must await the verdict of another day. That will probably have to be one on which he meets a defence less alert and well organised than Arsenal's.

How rewarding it must be for a manager when a big-money buy makes an immediate impact. Gilberto Silva was one of the least celebrated members of Luiz Felipe Scolari's World Cup-winning team, but he is the kind of intelligent and reliable traffic-controller that supporters quickly grow to love. At £4.5m from Atletico Mineiro, his anticipation, accuracy and appetite for work will surely complement the well known qualities of Vieira, who also had an outstanding game.

Painfully brought down by Gerrard after five minutes, in a challenge which brought a yellow card for the Liverpool man, Vieira was himself booked for tripping the flying Owen on the half-hour. But his presence was always an ominous reminder of Arsenal's superior power and confidence.

Gerrard, always highly motivated by the prospect of direct competition against an opponent he admires above all others, was returning to competitive action after surgery aimed at curing his deep-seated physical problems. If the incoherence of his first-half display looked like the result of a natural desire to impress Eriksson all over again, his more measured contribution after the break offered a clearer indication of what England had missed during the summer, and against Gilberto Silva's colleagues in particular.

ARSENAL (4-4-2): Seaman; Lauren, Keown, Campbell, Cole; Parlour, Vieira, Edu (Silva, h/t), Wiltord; Bergkamp (Toure, 85), Henry.

LIVERPOOL (4-3-1-2): Dudek; Xavier (Babbel, 77), Henchoz, Hyypia, Traore (Cherou, 87); Gerrard, Hamann (Murphy, 66), Riise; Diouf; Owen (Smicer, ), Heskey (Baros, 73).

Referee: A Wiley.

Guardian Service