Morning.
The Arsenal lads were among the goals yesterday as the October Interlull came to a close. Let’s start with:
Mikel Merino: He scored twice as Spain beat Bulgaria 4-0. He opened the scoring for his country with a solid header (watch here), and made it 2-0 with another decisive header (watch here) to make it 6 goals in his last three appearances for Spain. You’ll remember he bagged a hat-trick away to Turkey in September, and his remarkable goal scoring record continued yesterday.
Speaking afterwards about his ability to find the back of the net, he said:
It’s no coincidence. I’ve been saying for years that this was a facet that I wanted to improve. Both that and assists, being a little more decisive, and I think I’m doing it now. I hope I can continue with this streak because a midfielder who brings goals is important for the team.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that improvement is directly tied to our need to deploy him as a centre-forward last season in the wake of all the injuries we had. It seems to have unlocked something in him, a latent penalty box ability that – as we saw against Newcastle – was vital for us this season, and under Luis de la Fuente, only his former Real Sociedad teammate Mikel Oyarzabal has scored more goals for Spain. It might be a purple patch, but either way you can’t argue with the contention he’s someone who brings real threat these days. Not bad for a ‘DM’, eh?
In the same game, Martin Zubimendi played 63 minutes before being replaced.
Eberechi Eze: He was on the scoresheet for England, adding some gloss to the scoreline of a game that was already well won in Latvia. He banged home the fifth goal (watch here), but the job was done by that point.
There was some pleasing common sense management from Thomas Tuchel too because, while Myles Lewis-Skelly played the full 90 (useful minutes for him, to be fair), both Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were withdrawn on 61 minutes, so they haven’t had to endure as heavy a night’s work as we might have feared.
Gabriel Martinelli: He scored for Brazil (watch here) as they lost 3-2 to Japan in a friendly. That’s good for him, at least. Big Gabi was an unused sub, thank you Carlo.
Max Dowman: The 15 year old became the youngest ever goalscorer for England U19s in a 7-0 win over Wales. He beat a record held by Ryan Sessegnon. Can’t find a clip though, sorry.
Elsewhere, Riccardo Calafiori played the full 90 of Italy’s 3-0 win over Israel, while Cristhian Mosquera did likewise in Spain U21s 2-1 win over Finland, playing as the right centre-half in that game. And that, folks, is a wrap for this Interlull. At this point it appears as if there haven’t been any injuries to worry about, and hopefully the players on the scoresheet can return with a little extra confidence as we start to look ahead to the weekend, and the fixtures that lie beyond.
There’s not a lot else going on this morning, so if you have a few minutes spare, could you do us a favour and nominate Arseblog for the FSA Awards 2025? I think we fit best into the Fan Media and Club Podcast categories, but I will leave it up to you to decide. You can find the nomination form here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/fsa-awards-2025-nominations
Thanks in advance! A bit later tonight we’ll have an episode of Waffle for our Patreon members, which is the podcast in which James and I answer questions about anything and everything except Arsenal and football. So stand-by for that, and I’ll be back here tomorrow with more on the blog and a brand new Arsecast later in the day too.
Until then. Have a good one.
