One of the stars of Arsenal’s opening pre-season match was Sydney FC goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne, who saved a penalty in the game and could have joined the Gunners in the past.

Arsenal, as expected, created a lot of chances against the comparatively weaker Sydney side. This meant a lot to do for Sydney’s goalkeeper, but he told Premier Sports that it was understandable when you face a side like Arsenal:

“It was a bit busy but I guess you kind of expect that against a team of this calibre and we’re also still very early on in our pre-season. It was a fantastic experience to play against the calibre of those players.”

The goalkeeper has links to Arsenal, having had a trial aged 16 with the club. Arsène Wenger told a press conference that he probably “made a mistake” not signing him, but Redmayne certainly doesn’t have any hard feelings, as a supporter the club himself. When asked about his shirt-swap with Cech he said:

“Yeah it’s a nice little souvenir, I’m a massive Arsenal fan, massive admirer of Cech too so yeah I’m happy.”

Arsenal’s first pre-season game was also Sydney’s opener, and as a result they’re in a similar position, mostly trying to build fitness, but also gaining experience, as he told the media:

“Yeah we’re only a couple of weeks in much like Arsenal as well so yeah it’s an eye opener, we want to test ourselves against the best and tonight we did that. Now we’ll learn some things.”

Finally, he summed up his response to a penalty save from Danny Welbeck very succinctly, smiling as he said “yeah, it’s a good feeling”.