Arsenal donned their new, Brazil-style away kit and played like five-time world champions as they blew away the Indonesia Dream Team 7-0 at the start of their Asian tour on Sunday.
Unveiling their yellow shirts and blue shorts in Jakarta, academy whizz-kids Chuba Akpom and Kristoffer Olsson scored on their first-team debuts as Arsenal poured on six goals after halftime.
England striker Theo Walcott got the opener on 19 minutes, Olivier Giroud grabbed a rapid-fire brace, while Lukas Podolski and fringe midfielder Thomas Eisfeld both scored late on.
Fittingly for the occasion, it was exhibition stuff and eclipsed English champions Manchester United, who lost 1-0 to the Singha All-Star XI in Bangkok in their first game under new boss David Moyes on Saturday.
Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all have new managers this season, giving Arsenal hope that their stability under Arsene Wenger can finally help them end an eight-year trophy drought.
“It was a good game tonight, good technical skill. We could test some young players tonight,” Wenger said. “It’s a positive night in a friendly environment. We were welcomed fantastically. I felt a little bit like we played like at home, such big support.”
The yellow-shirted visitors laid siege to the Dream Team goal from the start and academy striker Akpom, 17, passed up two good chances in the early minutes.
Akpom was only denied by some last-ditch defending when Aaron Ramsey’s dangerous ball to the far post was nodded back into the six-yard box by Walcott, playing on the right of the attack.
The opener never looked far away and Walcott duly slotted it from the edge of the box on 19 minutes after neat skills from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a strike that was warmly applauded by Wenger.
Akpom was left frustrated when Oxlade-Chamberlain took on and missed a difficult shot into an empty net rather than pass to his teammate for what would have been the simplest of debut goals.
Serge Gnabry, another youngster hoping to impress Wenger, was also doing his career prospects no harm and he nearly doubled Arsenal’s lead with a strong run and shot on 37 minutes.
The Dream Team were largely chasing shadows, but they escaped to halftime without further damage — before the floodgates opened as Wenger threw on first-team regulars including Podolski, Giroud and Tomas Rosicky.
Gnabry laid on Akpom’s goal, a tap-in, after another marauding run down the left flank. Giroud also got off the mark from close range on 70 minutes, before turning and blasting his second just three minutes later.
The inexperienced Dream Team were given some unsporting boos by the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium crowd as they ran out of legs against the Premier League outfit.
Arsenal finished with a flourish of three goals inside the final seven minutes, starting with Podolski, who received the ball from Tomas Rosicky and drilled home a left-footed shot in the 83rd minute.
Two minutes later, Swedish 18-year-old Olsson’s goal also came courtesy of Rosicky and Eisfeld then smashed in the final strike off the underside of the bar to bring up Arsenal’s seventh.
Arsenal next head to Hanoi — where they will become the first Premier League team to play in Vietnam — and then to Japan, where their visit includes a game against Wenger’s former club, Nagoya Grampus.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was