Arsenal coach Wenger describes recent EPL transfer fee as scary

Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger said that the recent transfer fee spend by some of the other English football clubs makes him "scary".

Jose Mourinho's Manchester United is seemingly close to sealing a deal for Juventus' French midfielder Paul Pogba for more than $125 million.

"I personally believe that no matter what you do, it's never enough. In the Premier League, every club is hugely ambitious. With the cheques that everybody signs, it's quite scary. But I believe we know what we have to do," Wenger was quoted as saying by The Guardian on Thursday.

Arsenal began a stretch of two friendlies within 72 hours on Thursday night by defeating Major League Soccer's All-Stars 2-1 at Avaya Stadium, and they face CD Guadalajara on Sunday in Metropolitan Los Angeles.

"It's tough for us. We are in a very hard training programme at the moment, so you never know how tired the players are when you go into the games," Wenger said.

"But it was good to see that we were in good shape. We've had two hard days in our training sessions just before we played today, and it was good to see that everybody did well."

Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka and defender Rob Holding both made their debuts here. Xhaka, a $33.4 million signing from Borussia Mönchengladbach, played the entire second half.

"He has adjusted very well. His passing was clean and he did well with his technique," the manager added.

Holding, Bolton's player of the season as they were relegated from the Championship, played the entire match with the 18-year-old Krystian Bielik in central defence.

"He has adapted surprisingly well. He reads the game well and understands what's going on at such a young age," Wenger said of the 20-year-old Holding.

Playing against a squad that included greats as Andrea Pirlo, Didier Drogba, David Villa and Kaka offers its own challenges and opportunities -- even in a friendly.

"The contact is a bit less strong. But you had top-quality players on the pitch together, and you feel that every time you make a mistake, they can take advantage of you," the Frenchman said.

"What is important in this kind of game is to analyse what we do well. In the first half, we did good in keeping possession and going very quickly on transitions behind, and had good penetrating runs in the final third," Wenger signed off.

--IANS

ac/pur/vt