The third and last international break of the 2023–24 campaign has arrived, and even though Martin Odegaard will not be playing for the Norway team, Arsenal will have a strong global presence.
The Gunners defeated Burnley 3-1 over the weekend, extending their respectable campaign start. It remains to be seen if this break breaks any momentum since that defeat maintains them one point behind defending champions Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table.
Despite losing their unbeaten record in somewhat controversial circumstances against Newcastle United at the beginning of the month, as well as crashing out of the Carabao Cup, Arsenal are well-placed to mount another title challenge and qualify from their Champions League group.
A short trip across London to face Brentford is the Gunners’ first fixture after the international break, so it goes without saying that Mikel Arteta will be hopeful that all of his players return unscathed. That number currently stands at 16, with Gabriel Jesus joining the Brazil squad, along with Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli, for their games against Colombia and Argentina.
Now, football. London understands the striker is not expected to feature against the former as he recovers from a hamstring injury that has seen him miss Arsenal’s last five games across all competitions. But the reason for his call-up is Brazil exercised their right, under FIFA rules, to assess him themselves.
“In the last call-up, we hadn’t called up [Gabriel] Martinelli from Arsenal,” Brazil coach Fernando Diniz said. “He didn’t report to the CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) in a very complete way, so we didn’t imagine that Martinelli would be ready to play against Venezuela and Uruguay, and he was ready to play before our games.
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“Because of this too, we are going to bring Gabriel [Jesus] to find out the real conditions because we still have 15 days until the games, so we believe that he can be able to play because I like him a lot. We have 24 players on the list, and if something happens to him, we won’t need to change the squad.”
If Jesus can get some minutes under his belt against Argentina, that would certainly be great news for Arsenal ahead of their trip to the Gtech Community Stadium. However, he is one of several senior stars who have already jetted off around the globe whom Arteta is going to be keeping a close eye on.
International duty has already begun for Leandro Trossard, as he made a substitute appearance in Belgium’s 1-0 win over Serbia on Wednesday evening. In fact, the in-form forward is set to be among the first batch of players to report back to London Colney early next week as he, Mohamed Elneny (Egypt), Karl Hein (Estonia), and David Raya (Spain) conclude their commitments on Sunday.
Takehiro Tomiyasu has been called up by Japan for their World Cup 2026 qualification double-header but did not make the matchday squad against Myanmar this morning (UK time). The reason for his absence was simply fatigue, as explained by Japanese news outlet Hochi News.
Bukayo Saka is back in the England setup after sitting out last month’s fixtures. The winger has been selected by Gareth Southgate alongside Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale for games against Malta and North Macedonia, even though the Three Lions have already qualified for Euro 2024.
Speaking of that tournament, France too has booked their place in Germany so William Saliba may be handed starts against Gibraltar and Greece, Meanwhile, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jorginho are on course to come up against each other as Ukraine face Italy on Monday
Kai Havertz is in the Germany squad for friendlies against Turkey and Austria, while it’s an important few days for Jakub Kiwior and Poland. Victory over the Czech Republic on Friday night will give them a better chance of qualifying for Euro 2024, although they will need results to go their way next week.
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