Interlull round-up: Timber, Hincapie, Jesus, and an Italian addition

Morning from Dublin, we are now 18 hours into the wettening. The rain hasn’t stopped since yesterday.

‘Ah, but surely that’s normal for Ireland’, I hear you say. But no. It’s not. We have our fair share, but this is certainly abnormal, and I don’t care for it. It’s not that I have any big plans to go, or be, outside, but I’d like to have the option.

Let’s have a quick round-up of Arsenal players in action yesterday, starting with Netherlands 1-1 draw with Poland. Jurrien Timber played the full game at centre-half, alongside Virgil van Dijk, while at the other end Jakub Kiwior, who is still technically an Arsenal player having joined Porto on a David Raya style loan then buy deal, played the full game for Poland.

Elsewhere, Piero Hincapie played the full game as Ecuador drew 0-0 with Canada in a friendly, although because of time zone stuff, that game might have taken place the day before rather than yesterday but frankly I don’t think that’s something we need to get into right now. I’m sure the fans of both Canada and Ecuador knew exactly when it was happening, or when it happened, and beyond that is it important? I don’t think so.

Apparently that’s 6 clean sheets in a row for the Arsenal man while playing for his national team. They might need a fox in the box up the other end, but defensively they seem sound.

Piero Hincapie has six clean sheets in a row with Ecuador:0-0 vs Chile0-0 vs Brazil0-0 vs Peru0-0 vs Paraguay1-0 vs Argentina0-0 vs Canada (last night)When he was absent with injury last month, they drew 1-1 with the USA and 1-1 with Mexico. Think they need a striker.

— @AAllenSport (@aallensport.arseblog.com) 2025-11-14T11:04:56.883Z

Ethan Nwaneri and Tommy Setford played the full 90 of England U21s 2-0 win over Ireland, and that’s the lot from the games we didn’t know about. Although readers in Canada (Hey!), and Ecuador (¡Hola!) will have been ahead of the game a bit due to their time travel ability.

Today, our Spanish contingent of Mikel ‘El Goleador’ Merino, Martin Zubimendi and David Raya could feature as they take on Georgia; while Leandro Trossard’s Belgium are away to Kazakhstan. Beyond that, not a lot happening.

I would point you to a story from Tom Canton in Football London which lays out how Gabriel Jesus, having been left out of the Champions League squad, could actually be added to the group, but if I do your ad-blocker will blow up and cause even more damage to the climate which probably explains all the rain in Dublin. Curse you Football London. Everyone’s blaming ChatGPT and all the dimwits making fake videos and pictures of Homer Simpson with three mickeys just because they can, but we know the real truth. The polar bears are floating on crappy little ice floes desperate for a seal to eat because you can’t stop with the pop-ups. I hope you’re happy now.

However, it’s good info, and if he’s fit enough he’d be a great addition. Not least because the group stage extends in January, so if we do our job well enough, those final couple of group games could be a chance to give playing time to some of the lads who really need it. Anyway, I feel bad for Tom, he’s not in charge of the ads which are destroying the very earth itself, so here’s a link to his YouTube channel where he does good stuff every day.

And one small story I didn’t mention over the last couple of days was the reported arrival of Maurizio Micheli to a senior recruitment role at the club. He’s currently head of scouting at Napoli, and was credited with ‘uncovering’ the likes of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who now plays for PSG. This appears to have been a role Arsenal have been trying to fill for a while. There was another Italian guy linked strongly a few months back but that all went very quiet, very quickly, but it looks like Andrea Berta will be bolstering the Italian ranks pretty soon. Interesting stuff, especially now as it seems as if our recruitment is likely to be far more geared around adding quality rather than quantity.

Finally, one last call, we need your votes for the FSA Awards 2025. We’re up for Best Fan Media, and if you could take a moment to contribute, we’d really appreciate it. You can do that here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fsa-awards-2025

Ok, I’ll leave it there for now. I hope you have a rain-free Saturday wherever you are. Till tomorrow.