Premier League 2016-17 – Fixture 1 Arsenal-Liverpool preview:
Arsenal and Liverpool will conclude the first day of the 2016-17 Premier League campaign. Coach Wenger hopes his team can reach new heights this year and fight for the title as Liverpool’s Jürgen Kloop is looking for consistency from his team. Both coaches comments on the upcoming big game:
Arsene Wenger (arsenal coach)
“I’m very happy with the way we have prepared. I felt the quality of preparation was there, the focus was there, the team spirit is there and the way we want to play football is shared by everybody.
The players nowadays come back very fit compared to 15 years ago. There are no overweight people, the prevention, the work rate and rest is there. Their fitness level is quite good when they come back.
They benefit from the fact that we finished well last season so the confidence is high. Some players also had a good experience at the Euros so their confidence level is quite high.
It was a very positive [pre-season] overall, but now we want to transform all that work into points and that is a reality on Sunday that we have to catch straight away.
We are full of hope, full of ambition and we are very focused to start well. We have a very intense game straight away with Liverpool, these games are always very unpredictable. We try to prepare well to be ready.”
Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool coach)
“Consistency is the only way to be successful. All of these big jumps in performance, up and down, don’t help. It’s possible because we are all human beings and things can happen that should not happen too often.
Consistency is the way we have to choose and for this we have to prepare always for the next game very seriously during the week and by being at 100 per cent when we start.
We have a lot of things to do, but the main thing we have to do at weekends is win games and for this you always have to be in the best shape you can be. That’s a big, big challenge.”
