A goal each from German defender Per Mertesacker and new signing Alexandre Lacazette gave the Gunners victory over the Sky Blues in front of 80,000 fans at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night.

PIC SPECIAL: Arsenal v Sydney FC

In their first match of their two game Australian tour, Arsenal rained down 34 shots on Sydney’s goal with Redmayne making 12 saves including stopping a penalty from England International Danny Wellbeck.

During the post-match press conference Wenger praised Redmayne’s performance and responding to queries about the Australian’s time with the Londoners in 2005, the Frenchman admitted the club made an error.

“It is such a long time that I've been with Arsenal that I do not remember all of the trialists but if he was with us we made a mistake,” said Wenger.

“Sydney were a tough opposition because they did fight for the ball and at the end of the day the goalkeeper was the man of the match tonight.”

PIC SPECIAL: Arsenal v Sydney FC

Responding to the Arsenal coaches’ remarks, Redmayne didn’t fully agree with Wenger’s admission.

PIC SPECIAL: Arsenal v Sydney FC

“I don’t know about that,” he said. “Maybe after tonight. But I guess it’s pretty exciting. It’s good to play well being the first game of the year.

“I’m sure I can build on that and then just get on a roll. It’s always a pleasure to put your best foot forward in front of 80,000 fans and I thoroughly enjoyed the match.”

When Arsenal opened the scoring after just four minutes there were concerns that the English Premier League giants would overrun Sydney FC in the same manner that Liverpool did in March.

However, the Sky Blues were much more organised and disciplined than they were against the Reds and held out Arsenal’s advances for most of the game.

That was until the Gunners $88 million French striker Lacazette scored the goal that the predominantly-Arsenal crowd were craving in the 83th minute. 

Meanwhile, Wenger took time to praise Sydney FC for their effort during the game.

“You could see that we had the physical superiority in pace in power and for them not to pay a heavy price for that means they were intelligent,” he said.

“They didn’t die physically and the quality of their organisation and overall they played in an intelligent way for the whole game and I was surprised how well they defended in the final third we had to push to create clear cut chances in the first hour.”

PIC SPECIAL: Arsenal v Sydney FC