Buoyed by his 5-1 victory over the Central Coast Mariners, Sydney FC Head Coach Graham Arnold is travelling to Perth confident of a result yet still wary of the threat the table toppers pose.
Arnold praised his new recruits as he welcomed his first selection dilemma for some time after Socceroo Terry Antonis returned to the fold this week, as he looks to uphold the Sky Blues undefeated streak away from home this season.
“It’ll be a real tough game, it’s always a tough challenge when you go across to Perth at any time,” Arnold said.
“Perth are obviously in very good form, top of the league and Kenny Lowe is doing a fantastic job over there.
“It’s going to be a great challenge but the boys are training extremely well and we’re confident.
“Hopefully the conditions will have cooled down by kick off time but that’s what you’ve got to deal with and we have to go over there and perform to the best of our ability,” he continued.
“The performance against the Mariners was very good, especially our attacking performance. Defensively we have to tighten up a little bit but it was good to get Jacques Faty and Tavares into the team and both did exceptional in that game.
“We get to welcome back Terry Antonis as well this time and it’s a bit of a selection dilemma who to start on Saturday night.”
Following the Hyundai A-League hiatus, Arnold said he’s raised his expectations for the second half of the season as his players had time to recuperate in what he likened to a second pre-season.
“I think the break came at a good time for us,” he said.
“We were able to freshen the players up, they had a tough time in December with the injuries that we copped and the players seeing their team mates get bad injuries.
“We were able to spend a lot of time on the recruitment side of things to bring in some new players to strengthen the squad and fortunately we were able to do that.
“Once the new players came across we had a couple of weeks where we could train together with no games and it was like a mini preseason and it was a good time for us.
“I’m expecting a much better second half of the season.”
Sydney FC take on table toppers Perth Glory on Saturday night at nib Stadium (kick off 9:30pm AEDT). Catch the match live on Fox Sports 4 or follow @SydneyFC on Twitter for LIVE match updates.
