Swapping the mild winter days of Sydney for the heat and humid of Shanghai takes some getting used to - and Arsene Wenger admits it was something of a “shock” for his players.
We beat Bayern Munich in China on Wednesday in temperatures of over 30 degrees celsius at night, and the Arsenal manager says it was not just the heat that his squad have had to wrestle with.
This is what he said in his post-match press confernce:
on how difficult the conditions are…
It was a bit of a shock coming here from Australia, where we were freezing at times! We worked very hard on Monday and Tuesday, so I was a bit scared that tonight could have big problems. In fact in the first half we suffered a bit but in the second half we became physically sharper and maybe Bayern dropped as well. It was an interesting game for us because we had to dig deep and I think we will benefit from it in the second half.
on how tough it is to prepare when on a pre-season tour…
If you ask me is it ideal physically to prepare, certainly not. But is does have other advantages because we can meet fans all over the world so that is a positive. The bonding in the team is easier as well because we live together for two weeks, so on that front it can be very positive. But the real answer will be given by the way we start in the Premier League.
on Kolasinac coming off…
He was sick as well. We have a little virus in the camp, Aaron finished [feeling] bad, Walcott, Mertesacker, Giroud.
on Steve Bould…
He has a disc problem on his neck and he had to [have an operation] in Australia - he couldn’t travel. He had to do it over there and it all went well, but he couldn’t go on, he suffered too much so we had to have it done in Australia. He will go home on Saturday from Australia, but he’s okay, I spoke to him on the phone and he is good.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
