11 members of the Arsenal squad were on senior international duty this past week, with some faring much better than others with their national teams.
From goalscoring outings, to freak injuries, to serious injuries, it’s fair to say that the September international break was a pretty mixed bag for the Gunners.
Here’s how Arsenal’s international players fared during the September international break.
Thanks to Unai Simon’s wrist injury, David Raya became Spain’s de-facto number one for the September international break, and he performed admirably in this role.
The Arsenal goalkeeper’s passing range proved to be useful to Spain in their draw with Serbia and emphatic 4-1 win over Switzerland.
The September international break will go down as a bit of a mixed bag for William Saliba.
Saliba’s France struggled in the shock 3-1 defeat to Italy, but was back to his best against Belgium, earning a clean sheet by winning 100% of his tackles and duels.
Much like his centre-back partner, Gabriel endured an up and down international break in September.
After impressing in a 1-0 win over Ecuador the defender struggled in the defeat to Paraguay…as did the rest of the Brazilian team to be fair.
Two substitute appearances were the order of the week for the Netherlands’ Jurrien Timber, who is still making his way back from a gruesome injury suffered this time last year.
There’s been plenty of talk about Zinchenko moving into midfield to combat Arsenal’s injury woes, but judging by his performances for Ukraine this past week, that may not be the best idea.
The Ukrainian struggled immensely in the defeat to Czechia, completing just 80% of his passes and winning just 33% of his duels. Yikes.
One of the many Arsenal players struck by the injury bug.
Riccardo Calafiori suffered a freak calf injury when a falling Ousmane Dembele clipped the back of his leg.
Luckily, the injury doesn’t seem to be too serious.
Arsenal look set to rely heavily on Thomas Partey in the coming weeks, and they’ll be hoping his form is better than what he showed with Ghana in their AFCON qualifiers.
He, like so many of his teammates, largely struggled in their two qualifiers, losing to Angola before drawing with Niger.
As all Arsenal fans know already: the bad thing happened.
Martin Odegaard suffered an ankle injury with Norway which looks set to sideline him for a key period of the 2024/25 season.
Not ideal.
Kai Havertz is in the form of his life right now.
The Germany international once again got his name on the scoresheet this past week, netting a penalty in a thumping 5-0 win over Hungary.
On his return to Dublin, Declan Rice scored against his former international team Republic of Ireland in a 2-0 win over England.
Of course he did. This is how football works.
Arsenal’s ‘Starboy’ started both games under England’s new interim boss Lee Carsley, and while he didn’t score, he proved to be a thorn in both Ireland and Finland’s side throughout the two wins.
He’s top class.
