International squad announcements hold the power to garner mixed responses from managers and supporters alike, but the latest round of call-ups is certainly good news for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.
Whilst players jetting off around the world to represent their respective countries is a huge honour, it can also be viewed as a disruption at club level. For example, the Gunners had to make do without Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny and Nicolas Pepe at the beginning of the year due to the Africa Cup of Nations.
As things panned out, the trio only ended up missing one Premier League game. But had Partey not been sent-off in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool, Arsenal may have been able to use his surprise early return to their advantage.
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With that said, two of the four international breaks so far this season have been kind to the north London outfit as the September and October windows allowed Benjamin White and Gabriel Magalhaes to work on their central defensive partnership as injuries and Covid meant it took until the fourth Premier League game of the season to start alongside each other for Arsenal and they've gone on to keep 13 clean sheets across all competitions since emerging as Arteta's first-choice pairing.
The fact neither went away during those international breaks is not a coincidence either. Arteta was able to get to work with the pair in training at London Colney - during what he called his 'best 10-15 days in football' and now all three are reaping the rewards when it really matters.
"Yes [I am pleased], because they never played together, because Gabi is still struggling a little bit with the language, because they didn’t have any time to work together in pre-season either," Arteta said in a post-match press conference after a goalless draw with Brighton and Hove Albion earlier in the season. "But they're getting a really good connection. Good chemistry. I think their qualities match and complement each other really, really well and I think both of them today were terrific."
In the months following, the White-Gabriel partnership has gone from strength to strength, culminating with the latter receiving his first call-up to the Brazil squad for the November window and keeping his place for the January break as well as the upcoming World Cup qualifiers at the end of the month. For White - who was in the England squad at last summer's European Championships prior to sealing his £50m move to Arsenal - patience has paid off as his return to the Three Lions set-up - alongside Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka - was announced on Thursday afternoon.
As a result, for the first time this season, both White and Gabriel have been called up by their respective nations for an international break, thus vindicating Arteta and Gunners technical director Edu's decision to splash £77million to bring the pair to the Emirates Stadium in successive summer transfer windows. Naturally whenever there is a discussion about White and Gabriel amongst Arsenal supporters, more often than not William Saliba's name gets brought up too. The Frenchman has actually been at the club longer than the pair having joined in the summer of 2019, but is yet to make a senior appearance.
That could change next season as football.london understands that the Gunners would like to hold on to Saliba amid talk of a permanent move to Marseille with whom he is currently on loan as preliminary contract talks likely to commence when he returns from the South of France this summer. With Calum Chambers gone, Pablo Mari potentially leaving permanently and the north London outfit set to be back in Europe, Saliba's pathway to finally kickstarting his Arsenal career next season is clear.
Likely to provide competition for White and Gabriel for an important role in Arteta's new look defence, the incentive for Frenchman upon his return is to emulate the aforementioned duo to place himself in contention to be next in line to receive international recognition.
