I actually switched on the Nations League final yesterday for 15 minutes, just so I could have a quick look at Zubimendi, although I didn’t get a glimpse of his goal. I did unfortunately see Ronaldo get the equaliser to make it 2-2 and then prance around for a few minutes afterwards as if he was still the best player on the pitch. He wasn’t. He’d given the ball away and fallen over a couple of times that I was watching, but at 40-years-old you do have to give him his props I guess; there’s not many players who can still do that at his age, especially those who play in attacking positions, so there is some begrudging respect that has to be sent his way.

Zubimendi’s goal was basically a tap in, so it’s hardly one he’ll remember until his dying days, but perhaps because he’s a guy who sits in that deeper lying number six role and he doesn’t really get too many goals, maybe he will remember it? He only got two goals in 48 games of Real Sociedad, so when he is on the scoresheet it becomes a bit of a collectors piece. Sadly for him and his Spanish teammates, however, it didn’t come to anything as Portugal won that pointless trophy. And sadly for us, there are more pointless international matches still going on. Italy play Moldova tonight, as well as Norway playing Estonia, England play Senegal on Tuesday, Zinchenko is in action for Ukraine in New Zealand, Brazil play on Wednesday against Paraguay, the Netherlands play against Malta. I think that’s pretty much it, so it means Arsenal players will all finally all get some rest towards the end of this week. They get a couple of weeks and then all return back to light training in July I think. That’s where the hard work starts but it makes you think about the life of a footballer. The Premier League season and competitive football may only be going on for three-quarters of the year, but in reality these guys get two weeks of holiday and that’s it.

It’s kind of mad when you put it in to a context of the average working person. You and I get anything between four to six weeks if you’re in full time employment (if you’re in the UK). The guys who are internationals get the second half of June off and that’s it. And they don’t get public holidays like Christmas or Easter; Arsenal played on 27th December and on Easter Sunday this year, so there aren’t any bank holidays to speak of for the players. Sure, they get paid crazy big money, but all the money in the world doesn’t heal the body after untold work and stress they are put through.

It’s worse for this Club World Cup abomination. This time next week Chelsea play in the competition and let’s take one or two of their players as an example. Marc Cucurella is rat-looking little SOB we all know that, but he’s just come off the back of a season in which he’s played 48 times and 3,700+ minutes for Chelsea. He played the full 120 minutes last night. He now has to report back to training and be out in the US on Monday for their game against Leon. Chelsea then play on the Friday against Flamengo, before having their final match of three against ES Tunis on 25th June. If they progress then it’ll be anything between two to five days later that they’ll be playing in the Round of 16, followed by a Quarter final three days after that, then a semi final another three or four days after that, then a final on 13th July.

The Premier League season starts on Saturday 16th August – less than a month later.

For my part, I hope it is a Chelsea v Man City final. There might be a ton of money on the table for Chelsea to cheat their way through PSR, but it means if they’ve been taking the competition seriously and they’ve been playing some of their best players in it, there’s no way it doesn’t come back to haunt them in the regular season, through fatigue or injuries. I heard somebody on a podcast suggest that the players might be a little better at the start of the season because there will be no rust from taking time off, but I can’t believe that having player all that football and had no break, that there won’t just be a mental hangover from the previous season. That’s what we have to hope for, at least. Maybe less so for Chelsea, but certainly for Man City, I’d like to see them as fatigued and knackered as possible because the moves they are making to sign new players – and good ones at that by the looks of it – means I think they will definitely be better than they were this season just gone.

As for our lads, well, after this set of irritating internationals has gone away, we need everyone with their feet up for a few weeks. Because next season the expectation is going to be ramped up again and we can’t afford not to start the season well I don’t think. We need to do our business this summer and ideally do it early, for sure, but we also need to have those already in at the club to come back with a freshness that see’s them ready to go that next step onwards – trophies.

Catch you all tomorrow.