Morning.
It’s an Interlull Monday, so not a lot going on, other than to round up what Arsenal players did for their countries yesterday. From what I can see, William Saliba played the full game as France beat Croatia 2-0. Having lost the first leg of their Nations League play off by the same score, the game then went to extra-time, after which there was a penalty shoot-out.
I will admit, I don’t know what exactly they were playing off for, or why – with the schedule the way it is these days – extra-time is deemed sensible in any way, but there you go. France won on penalties, but I don’t know what they won or if anybody cares one way or the other. Perhaps they’ve got a nice trinket or a UEFA cheque-book and pen. Saliba will now return to North London but if there is some small upside to the fixture list, it’s that we don’t play again until next Tuesday, so he’ll have plenty of time to recover.
Spain were also involved in a penalty shoot-out after a 3-3 draw with the Netherlands. Mikel Merino came on as a sub and scored one of the spot-kicks. David Raya didn’t play with Unai Simon preferred in goal. I don’t know enough about his form this season to say he merits a start over Raya, but I just fundamentally distrust anyone called Unai. Apologies to any Unais who might be reading, I know it’s not a scientific way to go about things, it’s just a bit of mental scarring.
Like if I wanted to get something done around the house (one of the many things I am incapable of doing like DIY and such), and I called a company who does the thing I need to get a quote, and they sent around a guy called Gervinho Murphy. I’d thank them for their time and look elsewhere. I know, I know, not all Gervinhos, but it is what it is. If your surname is Collins or you’re wearing 5 different shades of Maroon, your luck is out too. Jurrien Timber did not feature for the Dutch, so assuming his reported illness isn’t too bad, he’s had a less taxing Interlull than we first thought he might.
Scotland lost 3-0 to Greece with Kieran Tierney a second half substitute in that game; while Oleksandr Zinchenko played the full 90 as Ukraine lost 3-0 to Leandro Trossard’s Belgium, who have also won a trinket in their play-off game after overturning a 3-1 deficit from the first leg. Trossard didn’t score or make an assist, and was replaced on 69 minutes by Alexis Saelemaekers. He’s obviously saving up all his juices for us when we get going again. I think he was pre-saving in a couple of our recent games too, but hey-ho.
Today, England are in action against Latvia, so we could see more from Myles Lewis-Skelly and Declan Rice, while Ethan Nwaneri will probably hope for a bit more action when England U21s face Portugal U21s. Ghana are away to Madagascar so Thomas Partey is likely to feature there, while Jakub Kiwior’s Poland play Malta, and that’s about it as far as I can see.
So, once again I’m gonna keep fingers crossed for a clean bill of health – beyond that, I hope our lads do well, but that’s a secondary concern for me as a neutral in all of these games. Another Lewis-Skelly goal for England? Fine by me, once he comes back with all his bits attached in the right place.
Ok, I’ll leave it there for now. We will have an Arsecast Extra for you today. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Pod should be out mid-morning. For now, have a good one.
