Saturday 18 July 2015 13:24, UK
Sky Sports News HQ reporter Kaveh Solhekol previews Saturday's Asia Trophy final.
The Barclays Asia Trophy is not an ordinary pre-season tournament. Everything is set up exactly like a real Premier League game.
It is shown live in 218 countries, there are Premier League referees, and behind-the-scenes there is meticulous attention to detail.
The games may not be as competitive as a normal Premier League fixture, but everything else is just the same, even though we are 7,000 miles away from home.
This is the seventh Asia Trophy and the final between Arsenal and Everton will be the biggest game yet. There are expected to be close to 50,000 supporters inside the impressive new £900m Singapore National Stadium and both managers have promised to field strong sides.
“We do not have fringe players at this club,” Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said. “Every player in my first-team squad is top quality.”
Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in March, but they came within seconds of losing at Goodison Park last August. On Merseyside, they needed two late goals from Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud to rescue a point after being 2-0 down at half-time.
“We don’t have the budget that some of the other teams have in the league,” Roberto Martinez, the Everton manager, said. “We have to do things a slightly different way. We have to give young players a chance.”
Two young Everton defenders have already caught the eye at this tournament. Tyias Browning is only 21, but he looked composed and comfortable alongside Phil Jagielka against Stoke City on Wednesday. Also impressive was Brendan Galloway. Martinez says the 19-year-old left-back has progressed much faster than anticipated since he joined from Milton Keynes last summer.
Everton are not the only team who have given some of their younger players a chance in Singapore. Chuba Akpom grabbed the headlines by scoring a hat-trick for Arsenal against the Singapore Select and Ollie Shenton looked like a real prospect in midfield for Stoke against Everton.
“Ollie has incredible confidence,” Peter Crouch, the Stoke forward, said. “He’s already integrated really well into the first-team squad.”
Meanwhile, spare a thought for Varadaraju Sundramoorthy, the Singapore Select coach. For the past two days he has been working on a plan to try and nullify the pace and power of Stoke in the third-place play-off.
“Stoke will be very difficult to play against,” Sundramoorthy said. “We will have a disadvantage at set-pieces and we have to deal with the height of Peter Crouch.”
Stoke’s summer signings Shay Given and Glen Johnson are expected to play some part against the Singapore Select, but Ryan Shawcross will miss out again with a back injury.
In the final, Arsenal and Everton have no new injury problems. Wenger has said that players who did not feature on Wednesday will play against Everton. That means first pre-season appearances for players such as Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud.
Wenger has also confirmed that Petr Cech will also play for the first time for Arsenal.
Watch the two Asia Trophy games live on Sky Sports 1 from 10.30am on Saturday.
