Arsenal in Singapore: Day one round-up

Arsenal arrived in Singapore on a humid Monday afternoon in the Far East. Here's a round-up of the day's activities:

Many players had only returned from their summer holidays a few days earlier, but it was back to the departure terminal for the first team squad on Sunday afternoon, ready to board the specially Arsenal-branded Emirates Boeing 777 to Singapore. But rather than topping up their tan, the next seven days is all about topping up fitness, as the new season heaves into view.

The 27 players on the traveling party were joined by coaching and backroom staff for the 6,700-mile flight from London Stansted. It's the fourth time in the past five years that Arsenal have spent their pre-season in Asia, so youngsters making their tour debuts - such as Chris Willock, Alex Iwobi, Jon Toral and Daniel Crowley - were looking to the more experienced players about how best to deal with a 13-and-a-half-hour flight. 

The club's media duties started as soon as the players were through passport control in Singapore. The squad assembled for a group photo in front of the Barclays Asia Trophy before captain Mikel Arteta and manager Arsène Wenger were quizzed by local and worldwide media. It was hot and humid when the plane touched down at 5.30pm Monday afternoon, much to the manager's delight. "It's good, we want the players to work hard in these conditions," he smiled.

A gaggle of excited fans greeted Arsenal's arrival at the team hotel. It's the sort of welcome the players have become accustomed to on these trips, and is surely just a taste of the reception they will receive all over this city state for the rest of the week. 

Day one finished with a Barclays Asia Trophy welcome reception at the Grand Hyatt hotel. Arsène Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, Liam Brady were all in attendance along with Calum Chambers, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mikel Arteta, who took the chance to catch up with international colleagues and former team-mates respectively.