JAKARTA (AFP) – 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 half-
time.
Arsene Wenger Photo: Arsenal.com
England striker Theo Walcott got the
opener on 19 minutes, Olivier Giroud
grabbed a rapid-fire double and 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,” said Wenger.
“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 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, in a strike
which 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 team-mate 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 half-time
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.
And Arsenal finished with a flourish of
three goals inside the last seven minutes,
starting with Podolski who received the
ball from Tomas Rosicky and drilled home
a left-footed shot in the 83rd.
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
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