Morning.
It was a productive night for some Arsenal players in action for their countries last night. Let’s start with Norway where Martin Odegaard got on the scoresheet and provided a couple of assists as they beat Moldova 11-1. Two guesses as to who scored 4 goals. That’s right, it was Thelo Aasgaard, Ayden Heaven’s Scandinavian cousin. Oh, and Erling Haaland did as well. Odegaard had 8 key passes in the game, and looks to have really found his passing range. When he signed, Viktor Gyokeres said the only thing he wanted from the captain was assists, and what Odegaard needs in return is sharp movement and good runs from the Swede.
Still, as a way to prepare for a busy run of games in the next few weeks, that’s not bad at all. The new haircut is obviously the main reason he played so well, and I’m sure Mikel Arteta was delighted a key player who went into this Interlull with a bit of an injury did the full 90 in a game that was over by half-time, but still. Maybe it’s just evidence we don’t need to worry too much about his fitness.
Meanwhile, Noni Madueke scored his first ever goal for England in a 5-0 win over Serbia. It was very nicely taken too, and over the coming weeks let’s hope we see that kind of decisive end product from him in the absence of Bukayo Saka. He’s going to play a lot on the right-hand side, and we need him – along with everyone else obviously – to deliver the goods we need to win games and garner points in the Premier League and in Europe.
Declan Rice ended the game with two assists, both from dead-balls. The first for England’s opening goal, and the second from a free kick which saw Marc Guehi poke home the fourth goal of the evening. Eberechi Eze didn’t come off the bench, but a good night’s work for the two Arsenal players who started this one, and hopefully – like Odegaard – they can carry that into the next few weeks for us.
Overnight, on the other side of the Atlantic, it wasn’t a good night for Brazil as they were beaten 1-0 by Bolivia. From an Arsenal perspective though, it was good news as neither Gabriel or Gabriel Martinelli featured at all in a game played at significant altitude (4,150 metres apparently), so despite a fair amount of travel during this break, they could be coming back in worse shape.
It was a good night for Ecuador though, as they beat Argentina 1-0 with Piero Hincapie playing the full 90 of what seems to have been an eventful game that saw both sides finish with 10 men. He’ll now return to London, and it’ll be interesting to see if he makes the squad for Saturday’s game. He only arrived on deadline day before flying off on international duty, so he’s probably got lots to sort out. Such as:
Somewhere to live
All his stuff
His collection of early edition Spiderman comics
Steve, his chinchilla
I’m sure he’s got people around him who can help, and no doubt the club will have sorted him out a nice room in the Premier Inn on Euston Road, but there’s a lot to get through on his return. Mikel Arteta is generally a bit cautious about throwing new players into the mix too quickly, so let’s see what happens with him. Hopefully there’s a place on the bench but we’ll find out in due course.
Ok, let’s leave it there for now. Fingers crossed we’ve come through this period without any injury worries, and we can now concentrate on Arsenal … until next month’s Interlull.
Till tomorrow.
