Obviously I didn’t bother watching the England v Spain game last night, and instead watched a movie with Zachary Levi and Liam Neeson called ‘The Fix’. It wasn’t bad, actually, since you asked. But whilst it was downloading to my Sky box, I did watch about two minutes of the game that coincided with Harry Kane missing a penalty for England. I know this probably isn’t true, but I feel like he misses like 50% of his England penalties. Certainly, when I watch. Where was this energy when he played for the Scum and every season for about five year’s he’d get his customary penalty that he’d ALWAYS score against us, eh?

Anyway, England lost, Kane was apparently a bit crap, and Bukayo didn’t have the best game in the world, going by some of the ratings across the two or three football stats websites that I see. It’s funny because he’s delivered some end product for us already this season, but Saka has hardly been in scintillating form just yet, has he? I mean, he’s been decent; he’s looked alright, but we all know his ceiling knows no bounds, so to see him not quite hit his stride is something of a concern for me personally. What about you?

The thing that I think feels most off, which has been something that also I saw last season as well, is that sometimes his shooting radar seems a bit off. If I think about a Bukayo Saka trademark moment in a game, it would be where he picks the ball up, cuts inside, then bends one in to that left-hand corner. Obviously he’s so good he scores all kinds of goals, but it’s those ones that I normally think of, which probably have something to do with camera positioning too. If you think about where every camera is placed in a stadium, he’s always going to be on our right-hand side when shooting left to right on the screen, so aesthetically those goals are always more memorable, because you see the flight of the ball. So when I think of Saka, that’s what I envisage. But his radar has been off for a while on those shots, and I saw a very short highlight reel from yesterday’s game in which he had a similar shot that just went past the post. I need to see one of those go in.

Who knows, maybe he needs one to clip the post and go in, and “he’s back!” so to speak.

As for the rest of the players in that game, there were no minutes for Eze and no place on the bench for the called-up Lewis-Skelly, which I think is actually a shame. Lewis-Skelly playing more regularly and therefore getting that England call-up is great news, and I don’t think you’ll find a Gooner around who isn’t happy for him. So some time on the pitch, even as a sub, would have been grand. As for Eze, that time on the pitch would also have been useful, as it will have been minutes in the tank that he’s found a little hard to come by at The Arsenal.

That’s why for some of our players on international duty for the next week and a bit, I would actually like to see them get game time, as it gets their motors up and revving for when they return for us. Mikel has been giving players minutes here and there, but some, like Gyokeres, have looked super rusty. He got 76 minutes for Sweden and bagged a goal, but when you actually see the goal, he barely celebrates. It’s hardly a 30-yard rasp, but for strikers like Big Vik any goal is valuable, and that will hopefully give him some confidence going into future games. If we’re thinking that Kai is going to be out for several weeks (we still don’t know the extent of the injury just yet, then we really need to see Gyokeres get lots of minutes and hopefully bag a few goals. His Sweden side play Poland tomorrow, then Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, before another game against Romania on Monday 5th October. If you ask me what I’d see as ‘utopia’ for him being prepared to be ready for a return to The Arsenal, I’m thinking he needs at least 200 minutes and probably one, maybe two, more goals. If that happens, he comes back to The Arsenal with minutes in the tank and a spring in his step. We need just that kind of Gyokeres for Leeds, because it feels like he is a player who needs ot be playing regularly to see a guy who will get goals. He’ll have played four games and be ready to start if he avoids injury in these internationals, and that will work well for us, we hope.

As for our other players, Bruno G got himself 62 minutes in Australia, whilst Big Gabi never got off the bench. Lovely, he’s one guy we really could do without seeing playing in friendlies after what happened just under a Year ago in a Brazil friendly at The Emirates. They play India next Saturday and I hope he also gets zero game time. There’s absolutely no need for it.

Elsewhere, Riccardo Calafiori played the full 0 for Italy, and I hope they manage his minutes properly as Arteta has done, because I think where possible, Mikel is alternating midweek and weekend games with Calafiori and Hincapie. Italy should do the same. They play Turkey tomorrow and France next Friday, followed by Turkey away on Monday 5th October, so it’s the opposite of what we want for Big Vik; we don’t want to see it for our handsome Italian. Give him a game or two off, please, Mancini.

Tonight it’ll be Tzolis that we’ve got our eyes on for Greece, as they travel to Germany, whilst Odegaard and Norway entertain Portugal at 7.45pm. Again, we have to hope for a clean bill of health, so let’s just cross everything and report back tomorrow.

As for me, I’ve got a 9.30am Same Old Arsenal podcast (you can join us live on YouTube here) that I’ll be doing with my mate Mark, before having a day of rest before a nice roast dinner later. Hope you have a great Sunday with whatever you’re doing.

Laters kids.