Morning all.
It’s looking like a Manchester derby for the FA Cup final in May. No disrespect to Coventry but I can’t see them beating Manchester Utd in the semi-final although I hope they do of course. Man City should in theory be too good for Chelsea. I watched some of the Chelsea match against Leicester City and whilst it was 11 v 11 and 2-2, I fancied Leicester to nick it. However, 10 v 11 gave Chelsea the advantage. Liverpool losing at Old Trafford was a bit of a surprise, especially after taking a 2-1 lead but it wasn’t their day. 4-3 in the final seconds of extra time saw Utd through. The glory of the FA Cup eh…
With the FA Cup fixtures out of the way, international football takes centre stage. I say centre stage but unless I’m really bored, I won’t be watching any of the matches over the next two weeks. I’m probably one of thousands of football fans who believe an international break in the middle of March is ridiculous. Clubs are fighting for titles, against relegation or just a place in Europe so the last thing any need is players to be anywhere other than on their own training ground.
Liverpool have 16 players away and of the rest remaining in England, only Mo Salah is fit.
Man City have 15 players away, with injured Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish staying at home along with Stefan Ortega, Sergio Gomez.
Arsenal have just 12 players away with their respective countries, a number less than on previous occasions, not that you’ll hear me complaining about that.
Going away:
Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard, Mohamed Elneny, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, Jakub Kiwior, Oleksandr Zincheno, Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel, Aaron Ramsdale and Thomas Partey.
Staying at home:
Jurrien Timber, Ben White, Reiss Nelson, Gabriel Martinelli (injured) Gabriel Jesus, Jorginho, Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Cedric Soares, Fabio Vieira.
I always worry about our Brazilian players going away on international duty because of the miles they cover but this time, not only do we have just Gabriel going away, bad enough as that is considering how good he’s been for Arsenal, but both of Brazils fixtures are in Europe. First up is England at Wembley followed by short trip to Spain. England have two home fixtures, France also play both their games at home, as do Norway. Both Germany matches are in Europe. Poland play just the one home fixture, Ukraine travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belgium take on the Republic of Ireland before facing England, Egypt have one home fixture against New Zealand and lastly, Ghana have two away matches, the first against Nigeria followed by Uganda.
All we can do now is hope that all of our players return to Arsenal next week in good physical condition. Majority of them should be back on Wednesday so that’ll give Mikel Arteta four days to work with them before the City game on the last day of the month.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico and all,
I hate the international matches at the best of the time, but what hate even more is international friendly games that don’t need to be played and if we do have too have them when why have them using the under 21 player, so fans can see what is coming through and give them a chance to show how good they are.
Don’t forget we have the soccer in the olypics this year aswell.
Morning Geoff. There needs to be international friendlies imo, just not at this stage of the season when there’s so much still on offer domestically.
Yes indeed Geoff , I read that France want Saliba in their squad . That’s just what we need.
For Paris 2024, Mbappé could be selected as one of those over-age players if an agreement is sealed.
Veteran Karim Benzema is also said to be interested in playing at the tournament.
Young players who would expect to be part of the Olympic team include FIFA World Cup squad members William Saliba and Eduardo Camavinga, as well as recent call-ups, defenders Benoît Badiashile and Adrien Truffert.
Jules Koundé, Raphaël Varane, Adrien Rabiot and Paul Pogba could be among the over-age players in contention for the Olympic squad too.
The Paris 2024 Olympics are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11 2024, with men’s football starting on July 24 two days prior to the Opening Ceremony.
And their manager , One Thierry Henry .
Arsenal have 12 players on international duty:
Oleksandr Zinchenko | Ukraine
Jakub Kiwior | Poland
Karl Hein | Estonia
Aaron Ramsdale | England
Bukayo Saka | England
Declan Rice | England
William Saliba | France
Kai Havertz | Germany
Leandro Trossard | Belgium
David Raya | Spain
Jorginho | Italy
Martin Odegaard | Norway
And 13 first team squad members at home:
Ben White
Gabriel Magalhaes
Gabriel Martinelli
Jurrien Timber
Cedric Soares
Takehiro Tomiyasu
Thomas Partey
Emile Smith Rowe
Fabio Vieira
Mo Elneny
Eddie Nketiah
Reiss Nelson
Gabriel Jesus
Not wanting to be pedantic Rico but Partey is staying in Blighty…
I’m not so against Saliba playing in the Olympics and we don’t want to upset him either. That could be his pre-season and it’ll all Arteta to experiment with different defensive line-ups: White and Gabriel or Timber and Gabriel or Tomiyasu and Gabriel or White and Kiwior?
The combinations are endless and maybe Arteta needs to prepare for the worst case scenario next season?
There seems to be an awful lot of rumours swirling around the futures of Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson lately.
Now I know we casually opine about who we think Arsenal could or should sell but this stuff is really gaining traction and I can only think that it’s their agent who is putting it out there?
Interesting that there isn’t anything like the same amount of linkage to where Cedric or Elneny will end up?
That’s assuming that they both leave…
Looks as if Everton are going to have to cash in on their very tall and very promising centre half Branthwaite.
He looks a very accomplished defender and if we weren’t as well stocked in that department I’d be quite keen to see Arsenal bid for him.
A fee in the region of £80m is thought to be the asking price which kinda narrows it down to Man Utd – sadly…
Man City’s visit to their Jonah club Tottenham has been postponed due to their FACup Semifinal, which is great for fixture congestion and Arsenal’s home game with Aston Villa has been put back to a Sunday because Villa are playing in europe on the Thursday, so Arsenal get an extra 24 hours rest and a days more recovery time than Villa – lovely…
Good morning all.
Brighton want Nelson and Wolves want Nketiah, selling them both will barely finance the purchase of just one replacement. Unless we have a couple of ready to go academy graduates we will merely be taking a backward step as far as squad strength goes.
58th wedding anniversary today…..and they said it would never last. 😉
Congradulation on 58 years Cicero, hope you and Mrs Cicero have many more to come.
I see that Gabriel has withdrawn from the Brazil squad due to injury, hopefully he will be OK to play Man City.
Like most of us I have little interest in friendly internationals,I will tune in next week, My eldest grandson is going to the England – Belgium game with his school. He’s very excited. My first time at Wembley was also a school trip,at the same age,11. England – Northern Ireland,a group of us bumped into Bob Wilson in the old Wembley concourse,he was an absolute gentleman and spoke to us briefly. I can’t remember anything about the game,I think Northern Ireland had a few Arsenal players (1978)
Must be a slow week for the papers, The Metro are claiming an independent panel claim Havertz should have been sent off against Brentford,
Never better than hearing, sports people giving 5 minutes to young kids, it’s a memory they have for life.
sorry political correctness, is it young kids, children our young people this week. 🤷♂️
Young non-binaries I think Geoff?
An independent panel claim ‘blah blah blah’ and the Metro writes ‘bollox bollox bollox’ – such is the Interlull…
Tomiyasu signs until 2027, so a 3.5 year extension…
He gets a pay rise and we protect his value.
It’s good too Tomiyasu resign, not only does it show his trust in the club and manager, but I feel his a lot to offer over the next few year if he stays injury free.
Morning guys.
New post up.
Kev, please accept my apologies 🤣