It was not a great night for Arsenal players on international duty but the best news for Gooners is that there are no more injuries to worry about. The only two Gunners who played whole matches for their countries were Thomas Vermaelen and Johann Djourou. Arsene Wenger will be pleased that Djourou got some game time after vowing to keep the defender and promising to play him this season. He played at left back as Switzerland beat Albania 2-0.
Walcott missed England’s hard fought draw against Ukraine due to illness, and they could have done with his speed down the wing. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain struggled to make the same impact he had against Moldova, to be honest he looked tired. Hopefully he will be ready and raring to go against Southampton on Saturday, but we don’t want to risk burning him out.
Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski were left out of the starting line up for Germany’s visit to Austria. Germany were lucky to get away with a 2-1 victory and had to work very hard to keep Austria from equalizing. Podolski was brought on for the last 15 minutes but both players will be fine for Saturday.
Laurent Koscielny was left out of the France team again, which is a shame because he is in danger of getting rusty. Giroud started in the middle of a front three for France, with Karim Benzema of Real Madrid and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich either side. France wasted quite a few chances in the first half, Giroud included and the Arsenal striker was subbed after an hour, not the confidence boost he needed.
Even worse was the knock to his confidence that the Wales captain, Aaron Ramsey, received. They were thrashed 6-1 by a Serbia team that had been struggling to find the net for a while. Former Wales captain Kevin Ratcliffe slated Ramsey’s performance.
“He might need to be left out…at the moment we are not getting anything from him.”
Spain were nearly held to a draw away to Georgia, despite their usual control of possession. Santi Cazorla was brought on for Man City’s David Silva after 64 minutes, but it was Cesc Fabregas who finally unlocked the resolute defence to set up Soldado for the winner.
All Gooners can breathe a sigh of relief and get back to the important matter of Arsenal’s challenge for silverware.
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