By Tony Attwood (and a calculator)
It must have been pretty quiet at Arsenal these last few days as no less than 23 players were away on international “duty”. I’m not sure if this is an all time record but it must be close to the highest number ever. Here’s the details.
1: Chuba Akpom came on as a sub in the 79th-minute for England Under-20 in their 2-1 victory over the USA.
2: Krystian Bielik played the full game for Poland’s under 17 side, who beat Ireland 1-0.
3: Hector Bellerin was selected for the Spanish under 21 team who beat Norway 2-0 but he didn’t get on in the game.
4: Joel Campbell had to trot over to the Americas and was centre forward for Costa Rica match against Paraguay. But it was a goalless draw, and he was substituted on 82 minutes. Costa Rica have a game against Panama on Tuesday.
5: Santi Cazorla was rested until the 74th minute when he came on in Spain’s 1-0 win over Ukraine. Spain play again on Tuesday against the Netherlands.
6: Calum Chambers played for 61 minutes for England under 21 and got an assist to his credit as they beat Czech Republic 2-1. He was replaced by Carl Jenkinson. He is part of the squad for the Monday fixture against Germany
7: Gabriel was on the beach for Brazil against Chile at the Emirates. You’d have thought he was familiar enough with the chairs by now, but no, that’s where he stayed.
8: Kieran Gibbs was another beached player for the England game against Lithuania, but didn’t get to play.
9: Olivier Giroud naturally scored for France as they beat Denmark 2-0 and came on late as a sub in the defeat to Brazil in Paris.
10: Serge Gnabry was a second-half sub for Germany Under-21, in a 2-2 draw with Italy. It confirms completely that he really is back from his very long injury lay off.
11: Carl Jenkinson played the last half hour for England under 21 coming on as a sub for Calum Chambers. He supplied the assist for minutes for Tom Carroll to score. Thus two Arsenal full backs (Chambers and Jenkinson) got assists.
12: Glen Kamara played 85 minutes for Finland Under-21 in Luxembourg where they duly won 4-1.
13: Laurent Koscielny Played the full game for France in their 2-0 win against Denmark on Sunday. He did not play against Brazil.
14: Ainsley Maitland-Niles came on near the end of the England Under-18 1-0 win over Switzerland at St George’s Park.
15: David Ooooooospina played for Columbia against Bahrain 6-0. By all accounts he didn’t do much.
16: Mesut Özil was recovered enough to be able to play for Germany, and indeed captain the side near the end of the 2-2 draw with Georgia. He also played the full game in the 2-0 win over Georgia.
17: Lukas Podolski came on as a sub for Germany and duly scored to get a draw thus saving his country from a humiliating defeat.
18: Aaron Ramsey scored one and created one as Wales beat Israel but then got injured. There is a deafening silence relating to how bad the injury is.
19: Tomas Rosicky played the whole game as Czech Republic drew 1-1 with Latvia.
20: Alexis Sánchez put in what looked like a proper shift for Chile in a match which looked like it was more about kicking each other than the ball. And he played half the game in a match against Iran.
21: Wojciech Szczesny sat on the beach as Poland drew 1-1 against Ireland.
22: Theo Walcott popped on for England in the match against Lithuania.
23: Danny Welbeck scored for England to become the top scorer in the current campaign. He was the man of the match against Lithuania, but then got injured. As with Ramsey, news is scarce.
23: Chris Willock came on as a sub for England under 17 on the hour against Romania.
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Fantastic stuff, lots of young players there too, particuarly keen to get a proper look at Bielik next season, in the league cup perhaps.
Incidently, for Gabriel at #7, you did mean the bench right? Not the ‘beach’, or was he in Brazil on the beach chilling out? 😛
And more than a third of them English – what is Greg Dyke on about?
Rory
Welcome to UA.
Don’t recall seeing you before so you possibly haven’t noticed that ‘beach’ is a colloquial/humorous term used by UA for the ‘bench’.
jambug, Ahh right I see, newbie error! 🙂 I have been reading the site for a while but never noticed that!
Gnabry on for Germany in the second half in tonights under 21 match. Great to see him back.
Get very worried when there is deathly silence on Arsenal injuries. Coq needs a box to box beside him, Jack and Ox will not be ready this weekend, not that he is a B2B, but nor will Arteta. With Welbz out could see theo?
Expect to see all of Liverpools so called “injured” players pulled out of England games available this weekend. Already reports Sturridge will play, despite claims he would be out for a month. Still, at least we will not face Skirtel, not a player I rate, but one who for some reason seems to do rather well against us
Mandy
Yes, but this has been Rogers revenge on Hodgson for injuring Sturridge (for most of the season) in the autumn internationals. To tell the truth I have to say I don’t blame him.
Good thing the bans have taken out 2 skilled GBH specialists. Skirtel & Gerrard are both known for putting their stamp on a match early doors (as they say ooop north).
I don’t blame him either Tailgunner, wish we did the same, seem to remember the same happening to Theo in the Autumn. I hate international football cannot see anything good comes out of it in this day and age.
Menace, unfortunately, I read on here that Taylor is ref for that game, that means all Liverpool players have a licence to commit GBH, and if we retaliate, the cards come out. Glad to see Gerrard and Skirtel out, but I am sure there others who can carry on their work
Tony has been musing about changes. I have a few.
If a visiting team has their flag upside down, automatic 2-0 to the visiting team. If the visiting team gets the wrong anthem, automatic 2-0 to the visiting team.
In friendlies, if the friendly is played outside of either country, there is no requirement that the referee come from the country where the game is played.
Mandy – I’ve decided that all PGMO are scum. Just that some cling to the sides quicker!! Taylor might just surprise us with a clean game – damned flying pigs!
Gord – I’m going to try preparing my first salt beef. I got saltpeter from India now to organise the rest of ingredients for the brine. Should be perfect for semi final sarnis at Wembley.
This U21s is only good when players who are in the first team of any club be not eligible for it. This only increases their amount of games. Those not in the first team will love the chance to be playing internationally, while those in the first team already are so that is how it should be i think.