Fitness foundations-Greetings from Graz

“You have very good voices,” smiled the Arsenal manager as a pocket of fans ‘serenaded’ him with a raucous burst of ‘we believe in Arsène Wenger’ as he left the training pitch after the first session of the Austrian trip.

The Frenchman seemed in good spirits. This is, after all, one of the purest times of the football season for him. It is total preparation - no disturbance, no pressure. A time to ingrain good habits.

“Always look for quality,” shouted Wenger to his squad at one point. It kind of sums up his philosophy for this camp.

The Arsenal manager once said he came to Austria for ‘good food, good pitches and good weather’. Although perhaps he would not have wanted it quite as hot as this. It is reported to be around 37 degrees centigrade today and may reach 40 degrees nearer the weekend. It was sweltering just sitting on the sidelines so what they players are feeling I just don’t know.

The highlight of today’s session was Nicklas Bendtner’s rising, rasping shot past Jens Lehmann and into the top corner of the net from long range. That came in the middle section of the session. The first part was drills, the second setting up certain scenarios of play and the third was a practice game. There are likely to be two sessions per day except in the build-up to or warm down from a match.

This will be the foundation of the players’ fitness throughout the coming campaign.

Last night, we went down to watch Middlesbrough’s 1-1 draw with Hertha Berlin at Bad Waltersdorf. Ex-Arsenal striker Jeremie Aliadiere made his debut and had a decent first half. The English side fell behind five minutes before the break, however on the whistle Yakubu equalised from the spot. Fabio Rochembach and Berlin’s Pal Dardai saw red late on and Boro boss Gareth Southgate is set to lodge an appeal because the Brazilian’s ban could stretch into Premiership games. A lesson for Arsenal in their two friendlies to come.

Wenger will have seen the dismissals. He arrived midway through the second half. We know that because his presence was announced over the tannoy.

Arsenal’s arrival is pretty big news out here!

Greetings from Graz

Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com Editor, 17 July 2007, 11.14 AM.

Morning all. We safely arrived in Graz yesterday and made the short trip to the club’s training base high in the hills. The players have not arrived yet but there are still plenty of footballers around — Middlesbrough are staying in our hotel.

Gareth Southgate’s side have been in Austria for around 10 days and conclude their stay with a game against Hertha Berlin at Bad Waltersdorf this evening.

Managed to grab a quick chat with Jeremie Aliadiere. He is a veteran of these trips with Arsenal so it is kind of ironic that, within a month of completing his move, he finds himself back in this part of Austria.

It is not surprising that the local media are very interested in Emmanuel Pogatetz, Middlesbrough’s Austrian defender. But apparently Turkish television will also be here in numbers over the next few days. They’ll be covering Boro’s new signing, Tuncay, tonight and staying on for Arsenal’s game with Genclerbirligi on Thursday.

This is the sixth time Arsène Wenger has brought his team to Austria for pre-season. But then this is now a very popular area for football clubs in early training. Relatively local sides like Stuttgart, Hertha, Kaiserslauten have come again. But it is a bit more of a trek for West Ham, Lazio, Copenhagen, Real Madrid, Plymouth, Stoke and Hapoel Tel Aviv. All those teams will training here at some point this summer.

For Wenger’s side, the hard work starts in earnest tomorrow. I hope for the players' sake the temperature dips before then - it is roasting over here right now.

More tomorrow.