Arsenal Scouting Report: The Western Sydney men to look out for
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One game down, one game to go. Arsenal’s two-game tour of Australia got off to the perfect start on Thursday with a 2-0 win against Sydney FC.
New boy Alexandre Lacazette managed to find the back on the net on his debut, too, which will have pleased Arsene Wenger immensely.
The Gunners take the show on the road again on Saturday as they finish off their Aussie travels with a game against the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Wanderers’ head coach, Tony Popovic, might be familiar to slightly older Premier League fans having played for Crystal Palace between 2001 and 2006.
The Sydney club are an established A-League side with one league title and an Asian Champions League crown under their belt.
They’ve had a relatively underwhelming time of it the last couple of seasons, though, so Arsenal should have another straightforward game ahead of them here.
Should they fear anyone on this Wanderers side? Probably not, to be frank. Their best player from last season, Nico Martinez, has headed back to parent club Olympiakos, which was a huge blow.
They have signed Dutch star Roly Bonevacia from Wellington Phoenix and he could prove to be good business for the season ahead, though. Having moved to the A-League after stints in the Eredivisie with NAC Breda and Roda JC, he managed 14 league goals for Wellington before his move.
Josh Risdon is another name to look out for. The right-back, who started his career at Perth Glory, loves to storm up and down the flank so whoever’s tasked with taking him on may not appreciated the lung-bursting runs.
Wanderers had a fairly mediocre season to date. They finished a massive thirty points off league leaders and bitter city rivals, Sydney FC, who Arsenal easily dispatched.
It should get even easier for the Londoners here.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
