by Nia Griffiths

Arsene Wenger has described the Singapore pre-season tour as ‘perfect‘ and believes it was the best way to kick-start the new season.

Speaking shortly after winning the Barclays Asia Trophy, Wenger looked back on the tour, mentioning the importance of pre-season in terms of preparing the players for the new season. He also described how satisfying it is to watch the team truly come to fruition and all appear to be on the same wave length after a few bumps along the way.

The boss also pointed out how we’re leaving Singapore without a single injury for the team – quite a feat by Arsenal-standards.

Arsene Wenger Arsenal training
Arsene Wenger taking a training (via Google)

“What you want to do in preparation is to find the quality of your team play back as quickly as possible, and I think that tonight for long periods we played with real quality,” he said.

He continued, “It’s very satisfying and it looks like everybody shares the way we see the game. We created many chances and the individual performances over the last two games were all good.”

The boss seemed genuinely surprised at the fact we’d managed to keep our squad fully fit while away, saying, “[The Singapore trip has been] perfect for us because we came here with 27 players and we go home without any injuries.”

The team enjoyed a successful pre-season in the Far East, winning 4-0 against Singapore Select XI on Wednesday and then again comfortably v Everton on Saturday (3-1). Jack Wilshere, Chuba Akpom, Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil all got on the score sheet, new goalkeeper, Petr Cech, got his first game for Arsenal under his belt, and the tour in general went down well with the players who got to meet fans who wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to see their footballing heroes in the flesh.

“We won our games in a convincing way and I must say that the facilities, the welcome from people, the huge support we have here was all perfect,” he said finally.