Our pre-season tour of the United States ended with a penalty shootout defeat to Real Madrid in Maryland, an intense and useful workout for Unai Emery’s squad as they continue to build up to the new season.
We’ve played four matches during our trip, combining encouraging signs on the pitch with plenty of hard work on the training ground - which Calum Chambers feels will prove vitally beneficial when we visit Newcastle for our first game of the Premier League season, on August 11.
Here’s what Calum told Arsenal Player after Tuesday night’s match:
on playing Madrid being ideal preparation for the new season…
Yeah, I think it’s the perfect preparation going into the season - playing Bayern Munich [as well] and a couple of tough games out here. I think today we can take positives from it. There were a couple of negatives, but we can learn from that - we do it every game. I’m sure we’ll analyse this, watch it back and take what we can from it. We’ve come out here and have had a great two weeks of work. It’s been a great trip - I think everyone’s really enjoyed it. We’ve put the work in and it’s great to see the support out here as well.
on how useful playing in such an intense game was…
It’s perfect preparation. You need these games in the build-up to the Premier League. It’s one of the toughest leagues in the world, so having games like these are certainly going to get you ready and prepare you for it. I think today was a great test.
on what we can take from the US tour into the Lyon game in the Emirates Cup…
I think just the way the head coach has been setting us up in training, the way, the style he wants us to play. We’ve worked a lot on that this trip, we’ve been doing a lot of tactical work on the training ground. There are lots of things we’ll take from this trip and these games into the Emirates Cup.
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