The pictures were taken with me on a bike – as you can see – to help promote tonight’s game against Arsenal.
The Bird’s Nest Arena was in the background and it was good to get back on the saddle again for a few moments – I miss my ride to training and back that I used to do in Seefeld and it’s too busy and too far to ride to training here in Beijing.
Along on the shoot was a nice guy from the Abu Dhabi sponsors called Saood Al Harethi – he knew his stuff and we discussed tactics ahead of the Arsenal game.
Later in the day we had an open training session at the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing. There were a few thousand local fans that turned out to watch and they gave us great support, singing ‘Hey Jude’ at one point which may or may not have been for me!
It was unusual to hear a training goal with loud cheers but it was a nice change
...Yaya Toure
We kicked a few balls into their stand as gifts at the end and a few of the local youngsters then came out onto the pitch for a quick kick-around which was enjoyable.
Hearing the screams whenever Sergio Aguero was on the ball has convinced me who is the most popular member of our squad out here in China – I’ve seen a lot of Argentina flags, too, so he should be feeling at home at the moment.
Well, we are due to have a walk around the streets close to our hotel soon and then it is rest and preparation for the match with Arsenal – I’m looking forward to the game and hear there will be about 52,000 fans
I believe it’s being streamed live on mcfc.co.uk, so hope you enjoy the game and we’ll be doing our best to win and bring our time here in Beijing to a happy conclusion.
Yaya
