Seven eyeing up Vorskla & Brentford? Arsenal’s next left back coming into contention.

Morning all.

Plenty of Arsenal players have been called up for international duty. Mohamed Elneny, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Aaron Ramsey, Lucas Torreira, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Granit Xhaka, Danny Welbeck, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Iwobi and Konstantinos Mavropanos. (Loaned players Ospina, Asano and Kelechi Nwakali could also be in action during the break.)

France clearly still have a problem finding a place in the squad for Alexandre Lacazette which in itself is odd but better for Arsenal. Ozil of course has quit so again, that should only benefit us.

Training continued for those staying at home and joining them yesterday were seven from the under 23’s. Smith-Rowe, Zelalem, Gilmour, Burton, Tormey, Pleguezuelo and Bola. All seven will be out to impress ahead of the first League Cup match against Brentford and before then, FC Vorskla in Europa.

Back to the break and those away are potentially playing just the one match at the most or if it’s two, the second is on Sunday giving them plenty of time to get back to London and prepare for the trip to Newcastle. Only Ramsey and Mkhitaryan have two competitive matches I think and for the rest it’s just the one, with a friendly being the second one. For Elneny and Aubameyang it’s the African Cup of Nations, the others, it’s the Uefa Nations League.

So what is the Uefa Nations League and in case anyone thought I knew the answer, wrong. I hadn’t a clue so thanks to The Independent, here’s a rough guide.

The tournament involves all grouped 55 UEFA member countries and aims to replace meaningless friendlies with increased competition which starts this week and continues across the October and November international breaks. The finals will be played in June 2019.

What is the tournament format?

The 55 competing nations have been placed into four tiers based on their current UEFA ranking and each tier is split into four leagues – A, B, C and D – made up of three or four teams. Between September and November the teams in each league will play each other home and away.

The team finishing top of each group is promoted to a higher league and the team finishing bottom of each group is relegated to a lower league, except in the lowest tier (D).

The four teams who win their respective League A groups (the bit England are involved in) will qualify for the knockout finals in June 2019 – semi-finals, final and third-place play-off – to decide the Nations League winner. One of those four teams will act as the hosts of the event – with a decision on that to be made in December.

Still awake?

Who have the home nations and the Republic of Ireland been drawn to play against?

England will play in the top tier (League A) and have been drawn to play World Cup finalists Croatia, plus Spain, in Group Four. Wales and the Republic of Ireland will play in the second tier (League B) and have both been drawn in Group Four alongside Denmark. Northern Ireland will also play in League B and have been drawn to face Bosnia-Herzegovina and Austria in Group Three.

Scotland are in the third tier (League C) and they have been drawn to play Israel and Albania in Group One.

Will there still be a regular qualifying campaign for Euro 2020?

Yes. The Euro 2020 qualification draw takes place in Dublin in December with all the matches due to be played between March and November 2019.

The top two teams from 10 groups will automatically qualify for the finals. That will account for 20 of the finalists. The final four places are where the Nations League comes in again.

So the Nations League can be a route to qualification for the Euros?

Yes. The four group winners from each league – A, B, C and D, so 16 teams in all – will play off in March 2020 in a bid to secure one of the four remaining places. The format will be one-off play-off semi-finals, followed by a final, per league, with the winning team from each of leagues A, B, C and D taking the last four spots at the Euros. If a country has already qualified by the conventional route, their place will go to the next highest-ranked team from their respective Nations League tier.

Clear as mud?

It’s just another international tournament where television companies have bought viewing rights so therefore plough more money into the game. Sky Sports and ITV have won this one. I can’t see any country other than one of those already qualified by the usual route winning this competition so I guess it gives one other country a wild card for the want of a better expression. That could please Wales, Scotland, Italy or Holland even. (Sorry Stan)

I can kind of understand the rationale behind this, albeit the last thing football needs is yet another international competition, because countries are grouped by their seeding so in theory, one country will only play against another of a similar standard and subsequently the level of the actual game played should improve. No sharks against minnows is the best interpretation I could come up with. The downside though is because the matches now have a competitive edge to them there’s more risk of injuries occurring to players.

Not that UEFA will give a toot about that eh?