After five days in Sydney, our time is nearly up – but the tour has made a big impact on Arsene Wenger, who admits to being “bewildered” by the size of the crowds.
Both of our games have attracted crowds of more than 80,000 fans and the Arsenal manager has been amazed by the level of support the team has received.
on the game against Western Sydney Wanderers…
We played with a good intensity because our opponents made it very physical. I must say after two nights here, we had over 160,000 people at the games and I am just absolutely bewildered - I am a long time in the game and it was amazing. We are very, very happy to have so many fans here. There quality of the game was good, we dropped a bit physically in the second half but as long as we could maintain it physically we were good.
on whether he was surprised by their quality…Western Sydney Wanderers were physically ready, they told me they had five weeks preparation already and we have some players who only have five days, so that pushed us a bit physically and that’s quite good. I think we finished our trip to Australia in a good way, now lets focus on China - difficult opponents who will certainly more dangerous going forward but maybe less physical in defence.
on the youngsters settling in quickly…
What is amazing is how quickly they go from being a young player to being at ease in the side. That shows as well that the experienced players help them and every day I feel they move forward. It is amazing to see, when you have them every day, how quickly they improve. They have all done well.
on how he will remember the trip…
The people here in Australia are wonderful, they are very respectful, very nice, they love the Premier League and overall Sydney is absolutely beautiful so it was a dream to stay here.
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