FFS

Morning all.

Let’s start with the worrying sight of Bukayo Saka going off during England’s 2-1 defeat to Greece last night. As you’ll be aware, I try not to watch these games, and I dread the buzz of my phone, but I was heading for an early night and just decided to have a quick poke around at the scores before I did. So I saw the Saka thing develop in real time.

There were video clips, it looked pretty much like a hamstring issue although some people said he had picked up a knock in a collision in the first half. He’s never one to come off early, at least not that early, so it is a concern – even if there’s footage of him walking ‘normally’ afterwards. That’s vaguely encouraging but you’re also not going to hobble around like Limpy O’Toole if it’s just a mild strain.

Either way, I think Mikel Arteta needs to get on the phone to his old Everton mate Lee Carsley and suggest politely but firmly that Saka doesn’t need to be involved against Finland on Sunday. I mean, Ireland just beat them last night, so if England can’t win without him, then there’s something quite wrong. And while I understand every manager would choose Saka if they were picking a team, it’s not as if he doesn’t have other options either, so can a little common sense apply here?

He played all summer, all the way to the Euro 2024 final, had a short break, was back on it again for Arsenal, and we’re just 7 games into the new Premier League season and this is the second international break. It’s also the Nations League, the format still nobody understands or cares about years after it was launched. He is currently 5th on the list of minutes played for Arsenal so far this season, but only a little bit off top spot – held by Kai Havertz who is not in action during this Interlull due to injury.

So, hopefully we’ll see some common sense from the England set-up, Saka can come back to London Colney and get wrapped in some cotton wool for when he inevitably starts and does 10,000 minutes against Bournemouth. In seriousness though, while taking nothing for granted about our game against them, people will be looking at Liverpool the week after and thinking that’s the game we absolutely need him for, so common sense isn’t just a necessity for England, but something we have to consider too.

There were other Arsenal players in action last night too. Leandro Trossard scored for Belgium as they came from behind to draw 2-2 with 10 man Italy. That gave Riccardo Calafiori a bit more to do than we would have liked, but I suppose the way things have gone this season some extra practice after your team has a man sent off might actually be useful. He and Trossard did the full 90 for their sides, as did William Saliba for France.

Across the Atalantic, Gabriel played 90 minutes as Brazil beat Chile 2-1, while Gabriel Martinelli got a few minutes at the end of that one. From what I can tell from our list of player involvement, that’s it until Saturday when David Raya and Mikel Merino could be in action for Spain, and Jakub Kiwior is likely to feature for Poland. Fingers crossed, everything crossed, light votive candles, make a sacrifice to the bitter gods who seem to have it in for us this season.

I didn’t mean that gods. I meant lovely gods who are kind and benevolent and so handsome and/or beautiful. The things we have to do in the name of other people’s hamstrings, eh?

Right, we’ll anxiously await a Saka update, for now I’ll leave you with a new Arsecast chatting to Philippe Auclair about some Arsenal stuff, how the legal cases involving Man City and Lasana Diarra might impact the game, and lots more. Happy listening.

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