A Day Of Mixed Emotions For Podolski

Lukas Podolski is a player I`ve long since admired and hoped one day Wenger would see fit to sign him for my beloved Gunners. As we all know Arsene enabled this dream to be realised this summer as the Frenchman looked to strengthen the squad ahead of the impending departure (?) of Robin van Persie.

Podolski made an instant impact for Arsenal as he took to the pitch in the purple and black (?!?!) of the mighty North London side for the first side against his old club Cologne.

The German striker netted twice against his former side, once from the spot after The Ox was felled and the second a lovely finish following some nice link up play between Podolski himself and Arsenal left back Kieran Gibbs.

Lukas said it`s been a time of mixed emotions. Speaking with Arsenal player he said,

'I have felt like a part of Arsenal from the first day and I am very proud to play here and wear the shirt. I enjoyed it a lot. Before the game a lot of the players were surprised about the city and about the stadium.'

'It was a great match and in my first game I scored two goals, so it was very good. It was a good test for us and I hope we can win against Sunderland next week.'

'It was not so easy [to score against Cologne]. I played a lot of games for a lot of years in Cologne. They were my club when I was a young boy, so it is not easy to score two goals against your team."

'You see after the game that [the fans] still love me! I was very surprised about the Arsenal fans because there were a lot in the stadium. I heard them cry my name and I was very surprised!'

Here`s hoping he can make a similar impact of the coming season.

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