By Walter Broeckx
A quick round up of the fortunes and misfortunes of Arsenal players when taken away from our club to their respective countries.
We are half way through the international games and so far no real disaster has happened to an Arsenal player, when we look at it from an Arsenal point of view. (Some players might feel a bit bad from their personal point of view or their country point of view – but that’s not really our concern).
Let us start with the French contingent. I’m not really bothered too much if France qualify for the world cup or not to be honest. So France being down 2-0 against Ukraine is not important for me. What is important is that it seems that Koscielny will only have played one game in the international break. Getting himself sent off can be considered as a piece of genius. So just one game on Friday and then some rest till next Saturday. Well done Kos.
Giroud has played 71 minutes and as France seems to need to score he might be forced to play again next Tuesday. Unless the French manager plays another player up front. From an Arsenal point of view: I wouldn’t mind.
Sagna didn’t play at all so at the worst he will get just one game. But no need really to use him, Mr. Whoever the French manager is for the moment. Really no need to use him at all.
Let us move to more good news. Özil played the last half hour of the game Italy – Germany. After having been sick with the flu post-MU he was treated with care. And more importantly: Low, the German manager, has said that Özil will not play against England. Because Özil is part of the team and will be part of the team, so there is no need to risk Özil. Certainly not after having lost Kedhira in the match against Italy and he is now doubtful to make it to the world cup.
So Low taking no chances with Özil. Like he said, we know what we have with him and he is part of the team and now is the time to see how other players will do in games against big opponents. Smart manager that Low – for Germany it would be a disaster to lose Özil in a meaningless friendly.
Per Mertesacker will probably play against England. After being rather very sick from the flu he now has joined the German team in London. But that means also just one game for our BFG so no real problem I think.
Talking about flu: Ramsey also has been hit by it and has missed the international for Wales against Finland. Great!!! The good thing is that with many players flying out to their countries they might have spread the flu virus around a bit. By going out they might have taken it away from London Colney. Looking at it like that the international break came at the right time.
Gibbs didn’t play for England. Fine for me. And Wilshere played 71 minutes against Chile. Just give him some rest against Germany, Roy. Thank you. Don’t overdo it. Same with Gibbs by the way. You know what they can do, let’s leave it at that.
Vermaelen played 90 minutes for Belgium and I am honest about it I can hardly remember who they played as I’m not interested in it. I only know that he had some trouble before the game, they played him (as they usually do) and then if he would get injured (like at the end of last season) and then doesn’t make the team at Arsenal they moan about him not being in the team. But why do you play him when he has some trouble? Better stop now before I start to swear at my compatriots. (Idiots… see just did it) [Belgium played Columbia Walter, and lost 0-2, rather like England – just thought you might like to know – Tony]
Santi Cazorla played for Spain and scored. Monreal didn’t play and didn’t score of course. Next stop for Spain is Venus I thought. Or this just might be a rumour as I have also heard they now play in South Africa. Just hope that both will not be overused by the Spanish manager. [However as the current average temperature of Venus is 460 degrees Celsius, I suspect that substitutes may be widely used in this game – Tony].
Rosicky wasn’t used in the Czech team that played Canada. Again fine for me.
Bendtner was used and played an hour for Denmark. And that is very nice because if there is one player that needs games it is Bendtner.
So all in all, not really bad until now. Some players that needed a game got it. Others got the flu and skipped games.
So slowly we can start thinking about Arsenal again. Only the Tuesday games for some players and then we could be ready for the next part of the season. The part of the season between end of November till end of December will be rather busy and important. So we need the players fit and ready.
And hopefully we could see a few players returning. Walcott was scheduled to return after the international break and also Podolski was named to be back possibly by then. We sure could use them to add to the team.
But before we can have a look at that, we just have another day of nail biting to do. Let us hope that the football gods are gently with our players and we have them back in good conditions come next Saturday.
Tuesday’s fixtures
Conference North
| North Ferriby United V Leamington |
| Solihull Moors V Brackley Town |
Conference South
| Bishop’s Stortford V Staines Town |
| Dorchester Town V Tonbridge Angels |
Tuesday Injury Watch
Qualifying games for the Fick Fufa Cup
| Romania V Greece | 19:00 |
| Croatia V Iceland | 19:15 |
| Sweden V Portugal | 19:45 |
| France V Ukraine | 20:00 |
Meaningless friendlies liable to cause injury
| Argentina V Bosnia-Hercegovina | 01:30 |
| Australia V Costa Rica | 08:30 |
| Russia V South Korea | 14:00 |
| Turkey V Belarus | 16:00 |
| Slovenia V Canada | 17:00 |
| Liechtenstein V Estonia | 18:00 |
| Malta V Faroe Islands | 18:00 |
| Austria V USA | 19:00 |
| Norway V Scotland | 19:00 |
| Slovakia V Gibraltar | 19:00 |
| Venus V Spain* | 19:00 |
| Netherlands V Colombia | 19:30 |
| Poland V Ireland | 19:45 |
| Belgium V Japan | 20:00 |
| England V Germany | 20:00 |
* Cool clothing advisable.
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PS: I don’t wish injury on anyone, no matter who they play for or what they have done, but thought you might like to know that it is reported that Christian Eriksen of Tottenham H will be out for over a month with an injury that he got playing in Denmark’s 2-1 win against Norway on Friday.
Walter I’m afraid that Ramsey has tweeted that he didn’t play because his hamstring was tight, says he hopes to be ok for the w/end but a little worry there
In that case blacksheep, we can only hope it was tight because of the flu…
Arsenal.com is also speaking about him having the flu
Yes Walter, yes.
Good article Walter
Is there anything more bizarre than “international friendlies”? First of all why? Who care? Don’t tell me anyone get excited about watching game in which both managers rotate 22 players in 90 minutes? If you want friendlies organize Amateurs Friendly League and play every day if you want.
Back to topic, so far so good, but if I could ask Low to do something, I would keep Per out of team. If he was unfit to play for team,why should he play for national team. I hope France goes trough as it would a bit improve moral of players. And as there is no Ukrainians in our squad …. COME ON LES BLUES. I hope Kos red card wont damage his moral. Btw I really think refs are quite unfair with him, he often get card for just being very fast reacting defender. I really didn’t sow what he done this game but it seams to me as pattern I sow in at least 3-4 games in which Kos really didn’t deserve to be punished such hard.
I saw the Friday France game. Kos didn’t have a particularly good game in my opinion.
He was yellow carded in the first half for a touch and fall.
He was at fault for the penalty and I think should have been given a red. The ref didn’t give anything.
With the first goal he stood about a meter in front of the goal line and ball watched. Had he stood on the line he would have had a chance to block the ball.
Didn’t see what caused his hit out in extra time as the camera was on the play. We just saw the player go down as the ref was running toward the incident.
Sadly not a good day for Kos and for that matter Giroud.
Fortunately the red doesn’t affect our games.
I cannot understand how the French manager can select Debuchy ahead of the warrior Sagna. There is talk of Sagna being selected at CB with Kos suspended for the second leg. Also I think it is good that Vermaelen is getting some playing time and match practice
I seem to remember one of RvP’s last long term injuries while at Arsenal was a 6 month ankle problem sustained in an Italy v Holland “friendly”.
Wonder if Fifa would rethink their schedule had the Kedhira injury happened to Messi or Ronaldo during a friendly? Unless it happen to a marketable player, they just don’t seem that concerned.
Their unspoken motto seems to be along the lines of “it’s not how badly you injure someone, it’s who you injure”.
You cant market the World Cup as having the best players facing each other if they all had their legs broken trying to qualify for the competition.
Also, if either Ronaldo or Ibrahimivic wins the Ballon D’or but their team gets hammered in the play off, then the world cup will be without arguably the best player or the year.
This all BS called international friendlies will never stop. Not when the ultra corrupt body in charge of those things is FIFA. They are worse than the UN, the Society of General Managers of International Banks (just made that up, hehe) and the KGB combined.
I mean, what do you expect? We are talking about a body who decided to hold the world cup in QATAR, at a heat of 50+ centigrade. So I think that in comparison the decision to hold “friendlies” is relatively reasonable.
God I hate Sepp…
Not sure who it was but on the highlights I saw it looked like a Ukraine player made a very bad studs up tackle on another french player and Koz gave him a small push to the chest.
Of course the player then fell over holding his face and pretended to be hurt.
He seemed to be a bit unlucky for the penalty too, quality of the clip wasn’t good so still can’t work out how the Ukraine player fell in the manner he did. Maybe there was some contact with Koz’s hip as he was about to shoot that put him off balance?
For those who , like me are bored up to your Uranus with this international break , have a laugh with this ….
http://www.ba-bamail.com/Content.aspx?emailid=6356&memberid=763708#.UosA9yfyQTE
OK so tonight we have to have fingers crossed for Per and Giroud. I don’t think Sagna will play (same as TJ dont have clue why, but from Arsenal point of view, perfect). Roy promised Arsene to use Jack only one game, Gibs will maybe get few minutes, maybe not.
Maybe we even get some profit from this “international break” as Saints players aren’t such used to play twice a week, and will probably be more tired than our lads.