Interview

Elneny – We’re not here for a holiday

We kicked off our mid-season training camp in Dubai with a dominant 3-0 win over Lyon on Thursday, and midfielder Mohamed Elneny believes the performance was a consequence of the work being put in on the training pitches.

The squad – minus the players involved in the World Cup – were given a useful run out in the opening game of the Dubai Super Cup, with some excellent goals capping the display.

After the game, Mo said the work is paying off, with the Premier League resumption less than three weeks away.

“I think we’ve worked really hard in training, that’s why in the game we look like this,” he said.

“We have discipline and everyone working really hard. It’s a great message to everyone, we don’t come here for holiday, we’ve come here for work.

“We’re taking it seriously even though it’s a friendly game. We look forward to our Premier League game of course but we have to focus here first to make everything right to build what we actually work on every day. We test ourselves in the games and it’s a good result for us.”

The experienced Egypt international also praised the impact of the young players, who came on en masse for the final half hour or so.

“It’s really good from the lads because they work really hard in training and they listen to us and learn from Mikel and the staff and I think they did really well today.”