Mikel Arteta is sure to have mixed feelings regarding the interruption to Arsenal’s league season. The international break has put a stop to the high-scoring league run of six games where his side have scored 19 goals.
However, there are some benefits to the stoppage after an injury to William Saliba against Sporting CP ruled the Frenchman out of action for the last league game before the break, leading to him pulling out of the France squad. The two weeks mean no league games are affected during this period of recovery, plus Gabriel Jesus, who returned against Fulham, has more time to get match fit.
Arteta has in the past used the international break to stage some behind-closed-door friendlies. Brentford and Watford, two close neighbours of the club have featured as well as Ipswich, however, this is unlikely to take place this time around.
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football.london understands that with the volume of players away with their national sides, it is not likely that a game will happen. Arsenal have no senior midfielders at the club besides the injured Mohamed Elneny.
Albert Sambi Lokonga departed on loan in January whilst Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, Jorginho, Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith-Rowe and Fabio Vieira are all away with Switzerland, Ghana, Italy, Norway, England under-21s and the Portuguese under-21s respectively.
The potential use of the youth stars has also been restricted with Mehmet Ali’s under-21s playing away in the PL2 today at Blackburn. The likes of Matt Smith, Ben Cottrell, Catalin Cirjan, Mauro Bandeira and Bradley Ibrahim are all involved.
Amario Cozier-Duberry, Lino Sousa, Reuell Walters, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are also all away on international duty.
The aforementioned Jesus remained at London Colney with the full Brazilian contingent of Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Magalhães. They’re joined by the likes of Reiss Nelson, Rob Holding, Ben White and the injured Saliba.
No goalkeepers are present with Aaron Ramsdale with England, Matt Turner with the USMNT and even Karl Hein who is away with Estonia saving a penalty against Hungary. It would be tricky for Arteta to build a squad with those available but Turner’s suggestions whilst on international duty suggest all the players, whether they’re at London Colney or away, have been given strict instructions.
"No one's looking at this international break as an escape or as a little bit of time away,” he said. "I think the message from our manager and the message amongst the players is very clear: you're going away to keep fit, to keep playing at the highest level, obviously stay healthy, treat your body right and come back firing on all cylinders because we're definitely not the only club that's on pause right now.
"We need to come back with the right mentality and ready to continue to win games and I think that we have such a good nucleus at the club, that that won't be an issue."
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