We have endured arguably the most boring Arsenal weekend this year and have come out the other side without any injuries - to my knowledge - and with almost all our players in excellent form. I never had the opportunity to watch any of the internationals but those who did came back with fantastic reports on most of the 14 that left London Colney. Those who did not have a great time included Francis Coquelin, who was sent of for the France U/21 side. You feel this could be a big year for the youngster. We all expected a defensive midfielder to be brought in but that didn't happen. Arsene has put his faith in the 21 year old who is more than capable but lacks that top level experience. He came out a few days ago and stated that he will assess his options if he does not get enough playing time in the next 6 months. I understand where he is coming from. A player so talented with so much potential needs to be playing football. Whether he was talking about a loan deal or a permanent transfer we can only speculate.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain started on the left hand side for England against Moldova on Friday night. His trickery and pace was too much for a poor Moldovan defense and he even got an assist to his name with a clever through ball for Defoe. He was subbed off after 60 minutes, replaced by another Arsenal winger Theo Walcott. He never set the game alight but also racked up an assist for James Milner which all but killed the game with England running off as 5-0 victors. Roy Hodgson found fault with Chamberlain's focus in the second half, citing tiredness as a key reason. He also said that he went hiding because he was told he would be subbed shortly after half time. I don't feel it was necessary to announce this to the media - who have exaggerated the situation and have written articles questioning Chamberlain's England future. A private chat on the training ground would have more than sufficed. I guess this is a lesson for the talented teenager who will no doubt take it on the chin and carry on working hard.
Other impressive international displays from Arsenal players included Diaby (goal), Cazorla (goal and assist), Djourou, Mertesacker and Vermaelan (clean sheets) and Gervinho (goal and assist). There is one more international midweek for most of these players where Arsenal fans will again be praying for no injuries and hopefully no fatigue going into a busy club schedule.
Arsenal play Southampton at The Emirates on Saturday where we will be looking to rack up another clean sheet and our first home victory. These are the types of games we took lightly last year and we paid the price. More on the game later in the week.
Other than that there is nothing newsworthy.
'Till Tomorrow
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