Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain spoke to Arsenal Media following the 2-1 win against MLS All-Stars in San Jose. This is what he said:
- 'I thought Rob Holding was brilliant'
- 'All-Stars don't usually lose this game'
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- 'Granit's performance was encouraging'
- 'This was a massive experience for me'
on the game...
It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. I’ve just understood what the All-Star week is here. We hear about it in the NBA and the NFL but I’ve never seen it in the MLS. For us to be a part of it was really nice. It was a big occasion before the match, they had some world-class players on their team and it was an honour to play on the same pitch as some of those guys. It was a really good occasion and a great pre-season game.
on the specialness of playing All-Stars…
It’s good to play in front of people that want to see you perform as well as you can. Some games in pre-season can be a bit slow and in the heat today, it was a bit like that at times. But at the same time, there was some really sharp football, some quick passing. That’s always going to happen with those sorts of players. Fixtures like this are great for us building up to the Premier League.
on beating the All-Stars…
When the ref gave the penalty, I heard someone on their team saying “ref, it’s the MLS All-Star game, why are you going to ruin it for us?” I looked at him and thought, ‘You lot don’t usually lose this game, do you?’ It seemed like they thought it was going to be a set-up win for them but we came here to win. The manager wanted us to play the game properly and get the right result. We need to get into winning habits. It was a good opposition for us and we wanted to come out on top. We’re happy to have done that but, more importantly than that, it’s always good for fitness. It’s not usually like this at home with the heat, it was hard work but I thought Rob and Granit were brilliant. Some of the young lads were too, so all round, it was a positive day for us.
More quizzes to follow!
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