Arsene Wenger: 'Arsenal's preparations for new season are advanced'

Arsene Wenger has described Arsenal's preparations for the upcoming Premier League season as "advanced".

The Gunners due to return to England after a four-match tour of Asia that ended with a 2-1 win over Urawa Red Diamonds yesterday.

The manager told the club's website: "We are well advanced in our preparation. It depends now on how quickly we'll recover from that trip because it was very difficult. It will take a few days to recover from that.

"We wanted a competitive game. We got one. Overall, [Urawa] are a team that plays very deep defensively and comes out quickly. It was a good test for us. We had four very hard sessions in the last two days and we had to dig deep [yesterday] to get through.

"That's part of pre-season. We still managed to create many chances, but of course we were physically not as sharp as we were. They were aggressive. They made many fouls."

The Gunners will face Napoli in the Emirates Cup next Saturday.