Arsenal assured of their safety

Arsenal will continue their pre-season tour of Austria after receiving assurances over security.

Arsene Wenger feared for the safety of his players after the Gunners’ pre-season friendly against Rapid Vienna in Eisenstadt last night was abandoned because of crowd trouble.

The Arsenal manager insisted he would call for the squad to return to London if his concerns were not allayed.

However, the club revealed this afternoon they had received a satisfactory response from their hosts over safety matters as they prepare for the games against Roma and Panathinaikos on Thursday, before meeting 1860 Munich on August 3.

An Arsenal spokesman told PA Sport: “We’ve been given assurances that the necessary security measures are in place for the remaining friendly fixtures in Austria.

“Naturally the club finds the unsavoury incidents at Saturday’s match wholly unacceptable.

“However we will not allow the actions of a mindless minority to disrupt our pre-season preparations.”

With last night’s game goalless in the second half, serious fighting between local fans and Austrian police prompted the referee to order both teams to run for cover and following an 11-minute delay, he abandoned the game.

No Arsenal supporters were involved. Rapid officials have apologised and pledged to ban for life those found responsible.

Wenger said: “I was concerned from the moment we came into the ground.

“I sensed this was an extremely hostile atmosphere and the lack of security was extremely worrying.

“There appeared to be no protection for the players of each side, people could just wander around the place with no restrictions.

“This was a pre-season friendly. I never expected anything like this to happen.

“Thankfully, and as far as I am aware, there were no Arsenal fans involved, but regardless of that this is a totally unacceptable face of football and there is and remains no place for it in the game.”