The story behind that Giroud mix-up

The second half was delayed at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing after an argument broke out over Olivier Giroud’s involvement in the game.

The France striker was trying to come on as a half-time substitute but, for a while, he wasn’t allowed. Arsene Wenger explained why in his post-match press conference.

on Giroud not being listed on the teamsheet…

Yes [there was some conflict]! I don’t understand why he was not on the list. They didn’t want to let him play, and we of course had a bit of an argument because we announced him. We finally got the green light from someone in the sky, and he could play.

on the game…

I think it was a game of a good level where we finally lost well. It was a bit of a combination for us, I think it was a good opportunity for me to see players at that level who have no experience. I tried to play two teams with a mixture of regular players and young players. Of course you could see that we were a bit less mature than Chelsea. Also it was the last day of our tour, it was quite long and we looked a bit jaded tonight.

on the impact of playing in Chinese conditions…

I think the impact is small. We are a bit tired because we worked hard. Overall, we fly back tonight and we recover. It is normal that the players are a bit tired after two weeks of intense preparation. This week we had two intense games as well but for us it’s better than playing weaker teams. We had two big teams to play and it’s good to see the potential of everybody in these kinds of games.

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