England bagged a win away at the Czech Republic yesterday, with Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly in the starting lineup, and having obviously not bothered to watch the game, I was hoping to see that Bukayo had a decent performance. I’ve spoken already about how he’s been doing ok this season, bagged some goals, but it doesn’t feel like his full ‘spark’ is quite there yet. The hope is that it comes through in more games, so these England matches maybe aren’t the worst thing in the world. It looks like he did ok, based on the numbers. He played 71 minutes, got 46 touches of the ball, created one chance, got a shot on target and one off target, won half of his duels. It doesn’t look like he was bad; it doesn’t look like he was great- just solid.

And maybe that’s fine for us. We don’t want him over-exerting; we don’t want him stretching, and we want him to be good for when it kicks back off proper in a week-and-a-half’s time. But I would be lying if I didn’t say I’m hoping to see some of the old Saka back soon, because we haven’t quite seen it yet. There’s no panic; he’s doing fine, but this is our marquee player. He’s the Starboy, so what I am hoping for is that we get some of that sprinkling of stardust when Leeds come to town.

Myles got 45 minutes, sharing the game with Eze, and Myles too looks like he did alright. A couple of chances created, a couple of ball recoveries; he won three of four ball recoveries and a couple of accurate long balls. In one half of football that’s fine, but Eze according to FOTMOB Eze had a quiet game. Nothing really in defence, but England were playing against ten men by the time he got on the pitch, so you’d expect that, so all eyes need to be on his attacking contribution. He had a couple of shots, had a 90% passing accuracy, created a couple of chances, but I suspect Tuchel might have wanted a little more from such a mercurial midfielder, playing against a team with one less man on the pitch. Again, I’m less worried at this stage, and it’s more that I just want him to get minutes in the legs, but we do need to start seeing some of the magic that his boots clearly possess, at some stage in the coming weeks.

I think it will come. At least I hope so.

A player who does seem to have got plenty of minutes and fully grasped them last night is Martin Zubimendi, who played 71 minutes for Spain in a 4-1 win over Croatia, and looks like he was heavily involved in the heart of the Spanish midfield. He had 72 touches of the ball (although, to be fair you expect that from a man in the heart of the Spanish midfield, given their style of possession-based dominance), a 98% passing accuracy from 66 passes, one successful dribble (of one attempted), three successful long passes out of three, two defensive contributions and one tackle, as well as one headed clearance. Spain clearly dominated this from start to finish, and he was in the heart of the team, delivering what he needed to. And importantly, he got minutes in the tank, which he’s found hard to come by so far this season. I like Zubimendi. I think he’s a terrific player, and I do think Mikel should be thinking about giving him a run in the team soon. Myles has been great to kick off the season; he’s looked very impressive having had a summer off and a good pre-season, but this is an experienced Spanish international we have who was integral to our great form at the beginning of last season.

I do wonder if Arteta has seen how his form dropped off a bit last season, perhaps recognised the fatigue factor, and then decided to ease him in for this season, which would make total sense for me. I’ve seen a few Arsenal fans speculating that perhaps he will be gone in January or definitely by the summer, but I don’t think it is as binary as “he’s not playing, so he’s not going to play much this season”, because I think Arteta is trying to manage his minutes because of the drop-off from last season. Perhaps Mikel is ‘doing a Pep’ with Zubimendi; we have all seen players who Guardiola left out for periods of time, then suddenly they were regulars for a big chunk of the season. Perhaps that is about to happen to Zubi. He played a lot of football in 2025/26; he went to the final with Spain, and whilst he wasn’t playing as much because that pr*ck Rodri had to be on the pitch (there’s no way he was the best player in that tournament, by the way), he was still training with the intensity of being a regular. I don’t think you can say that just because he wasn’t on the pitch, he still wouldn’t need some rest time and be eased in for a long Premier League season. So I have a suspicion that Arteta might have sat him down and told him he was going to ease him in for August and September, and whilst Myles’ form is so good, he’s going to run with Myles for the opening month or two of the season, but his minutes and starts will come.

Of course, if Myles goes supernova, then there’s nothing you can do about it and you just have to hold your hands up and say ‘sorry, fella’ to Zubi, but as it stands now I don’t think we’re quite there yet. 71 minutes against Croatia is good; he’ll maybe get a start in the away game as De La Fuente manages Rodri’s minutes, but that will also enable Arteta to consider him for Leeds at home. And that is a positive thing for Mikel when he thinks about the physical threats that Leeds pose.

Gabriel got a full 90 in Australia, as well as a yellow card, and they’re playing INdia next on Saturday, so I’m hoping he doesn’t get trotted out again for that one. But let’s see…

Naturally, Mikel Merino got on the pitch, bagged an assist, had 100% passing accuracy, created a big chance, had a defensive contribution – but that’s just our Mikel – man is an underrated output monster. And we love it.

And on that positive note, that’s me done for today. Got a conference I got to head off to, so I’ll bid you all farewell for today and be back tomorrow. Ciao.