Arsene Wenger Blames Pre-Season Tours For Slow Premier League Starts

By The Editor
on 30th July 2017

Arsene Wenger explains Arsenal’s slow starts…

Arsene Wenger blamed the long pre-season tours for our consistently poor starts to league campaigns in recent years, though he assured fans that we’re ready this time around.

We’ve only won one of our opening Premier League fixtures in the last seven years, and that was courtesy of a last-gasp winner from Aaron Ramsey against Crystal Palace in 2014.

Wenger finally caved into the commercial pressure of going on tour in 2012, with the boss previously favouring a training camp in Austria to prepare for the season.

The boss said our poor starts coincided with then we decided to travel, although he accepted that it wasn’t an excuse given the fact that almost all Premier League clubs tour.

“We had a very good record as long as we didn’t travel,” Wenger told the press after our defeat to Sevilla.

“Since we travelled we struggled a bit more but we are on the same line as other teams, everybody travels.

“In fact, when you look at the international games in Asia or in the States, it’s the big teams playing against each other.”

We have a tough start to the season in our opening three league games before the first international break of the campaign, with trips to Stoke City and Liverpool coming after our opening game at home to Leicester City.

After our defeat against Sevilla in the Emirates Cup, one thing is for certain: we’re not ready for the campaign in terms of preparation and squad recruitment.

Check out Wenger’s full pre-match press conference in the video above.