The Arsenal fan anxiety surrounding each international break is a very real thing and it has returned in earnest lately. This all stems for having had seemingly countless seasons ruined by major injuries to key players in years gone by where the football world has contrived against us to dismantle our squad and with it, our momentum. I think it’s fair to say that this season has started pretty well and has many Arsenal fans dreaming of a long-awaited title win, which has only amplified these fears.
During the previous international break in October, I found myself checking the scores of any game that an Arsenal player was involved in and scanning the live updates to see if any of our boys had been substituted in the first half or at a particular strange time that might indicate an injury. That does seem a bit extreme and it’s not something I make a habit of, but I have two points in my defence! Firstly, the fixtures leading up to the international break had gone very well indeed, with the only points dropped being that home draw against Manchester City, which had left Arsenal in a really strong position and top of the Premier League, with a number of difficult fixtures already behind them. Secondly, international breaks are sooo boring and it gave me something to do!!
However, during this current international break, I didn’t feel as nervous given that most of our players were already injured anyway! Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz, Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus were all sidelined while Ben White and Myles Lewis Skelly weren’t called up at all. That’s a good share of the squad that we didn’t have to worry about.
Of the players selected to play for their countries, the three Arsenal players that were selected for England would surely be used sparingly during two complete dead rubbers, with England already guaranteed to finish top of their group and Thomas Tuchel using them sensibly during the last break. Then came Brazil, who we graciously opened up our training ground and stadium for them to use for their utterly pointless friendly. Key man for club and country, Gabriel Maghleas played out the first 45 minutes of the game with Brazil going in 2-0 up at the break, with a raft of changes surely to follow. Gabriel, who has played a lot of football already this season and missed the business end of last season with a serious hamstring injury, inexplicably emerged for the second half and what happened next was pretty much inevitable.
Why, Brazil? Just, why?! It was a completely reckless action to leave him on and I think you can see from the post-match quotes from Carlo Ancelotti, the Brazil Head Coach, that they knew that they’d messed up here. I don’t remember ever seeing a National team’s coach so openly apologetic before. Usually they’re quite defensive and come from the side of ‘well he’s our player as much as he’s yours’, but this was different. Let’s put it this way, I don’t think Arsenal will be in a rush to allow Brazil to use their facilities for future matches!
So we’re now faced with having to enter a really tricky period of fixtures without the beating heart of our defence, and also one of our most potent attacking options from set pieces as well. Gabriel is an absolute rock for this Arsenal side yet despite all of this anger I feel towards the Brazilian national team (and international football in general to be honest) I still think we’re in a good position to cover for the big Brazilian. Piero Hincapie is chomping at the bit for minutes and will surely be utilised more in the absence of Gabriel, and Cristhian Mosquera is also another option. The Spaniard has looked really comfortable since arriving from Valencia and deserving of more minutes than he’s had lately. We’re also set to welcome back a raft of attacking options as well so it’s not all doom and gloom.
So here’s to keeping everything crossed that no one else goes down between now and that huge game on Sunday and that we also get a few more return to the squad as well.