On Wednesday, Arsenal kick off their pre-season campaign in the Barclays Asia Trophy against a select Singapore XI. These are usually the games where top Premier League clubs set their squad out with the main aim to gain as much fitness as possible, in order to prepare themselves for the start of the season. Aims like these often lead to lackluster performances.
However, Wenger has come out to deny that Arsenal will follow the same trend in the Asia trophy and speaking to Arsenal Player, Wenger has said: “We’ll take the trophy very seriously”. Fans can expect an exciting tournament as players will be competing for places. This will certainly give the Arsenal fans hope for an entertaining pre-season tournament, something we are not use to, as these past few years Arsenal have gone on tour to a number of different countries without playing against sides anywhere near their level.
With Everton and Stoke City also taking part in the competition, it certainly won’t be a walk in the park for the Gunners. Wenger will feel that it is important for Arsenal to win the trophy, as it will give the squad a bit of a morale boost for the commence of the Premier League.
“The players compete for places in the team at this stage of the season as well, so [fans] can be absolutely reassured on that front that it is a serious competition.
“I feel it is closer to the start of the Premier League [this season compared to previous tours] and it is also different in the fact that we stay in one place and do not have to move. That is a massive difference because before we had trips where we spent three or four nights out of seven on a plane.
“When you get to your last game you are not completely in a good state to guarantee a performance and I believe it’s the best possible position for us to combine serious training and serious competition.”
Arsenal fans can expect to see their favourite players on display, except for Alexis Sanchez, who is still on holiday following his heroics in the Copa America. Wenger also brought a number of youngsters to Singapore in order to gain first team experience.
Arsenal’s first game is on the 15th July before facing Everton or Stoke on the 18th which is when the tournament comes to an end.
