Arsenal’s Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech in action during the Barclays Asia Trophy soccer match between Arsenal FC and Everton FC at the National Stadium in Singapore, 18 July 2015. PHOTO/AFP
LONDON, July 20- Petr Cech was happy to start his Arsenal career with a win after the Gunners beat Everton 3-1 to win the Premier League Asia Trophy on Saturday.
The Czech Republic international, who recently joined from Chelsea, made his first start in the pre-season tournament in Singapore, where he played the full 90 minutes but was beaten by Ross Barkley in the 75th minute with Arsenal already three goals ahead.
“I’m obviously delighted to have played my first game, we won and we played really well,” he said. “It was important firstly to get fit and secondly to get to know everybody around me, and the main thing was to win the game.
Arsenal’s first game of the upcoming Premier League season, at home to West Ham on August 8th, is fast approaching, and manager Arsene Wenger is pleased with how his team is shaping up ahead of the next campaign.
“I am pleased with this performance because the focus in pre-season is to get the quality of our game back and for long periods we played in a convincing way,” Wenger said. “We had two convincing games with no injuries so that’s fantastic.”
Arsenal’s pre-season continues with Emirates Cup matches against Lyon and Wolfsburg next weekend before facing Premier League champions Chelsea for the Community Shield at Wembley.
