Bukayo Saka showed why he is England’s best player last night. Bukayo Saka showed why Gareth Southgate appeasing Phil Foden by giving him the keys to the England car was the wrong decision. Bukayo Saka showed throughout why he is England’s threat.

And he did it whilst being doubled up on by the Swiss, whilst being starved of service at times, whilst not having a familiar sight that he is used to at Arsenal; Ben White overlapping to create space.

And last night not one of us Arsenal fans were surprised. It doesn’t matter if you are English or not, if you were invested in the result or not, if you are an Arsenal fan, you knew just what this fabulous young man is capable of and how he delivered what we must have seen at least two or three times last season, minimum.

That cut in side, jockeying a couple of defenders, then BAM! It’s a goal.

Saka’s goal even went in off the post. Those are the best kind of goals. Pure accuracy. Pure potency. Pure class. Pure Saka.

He wasn’t just an end-product merchant last night either. This wasn’t a ‘stand around and whack one in from 25 yards having done nothing all game’ performance from Saka. This was him at his best and he gave the Swiss left-hand defensive side problems all night. He was in behind three or four times that I can remember, including wriggling free of his man and cutting the ball back to Mainoo, who was thwarted by Granit Xhaka (of course) in the first half.

It was a cagey game and a game in which both sides created chances and at the end you’d probably say that a draw was the fair result. It wasn’t the most epic of matches and I thought the Netherlands against Turkey was a lot more entertaining, but Saka, Rice and his other teammates won’t care; they’re through to another semi final and have done it despite hardly convincing. And this morning I saw Guillem Balague put something on Twitter asking why England fans and the English press are so hung up on playing good football. “What does it matter if they win?” is the retort and I totally get it. But i’ll offer my opinion and my opinion alone on this, as I won’t speak for the collective, but I’ve seen this sort of stuff play out in an Arsenal context.

Remember the winning run under Emery? 22 games unbeaten and everyone – me included – were saying “who cares that we’re not playing well, that we give up chances, that we’ve had a favourable run of games, when we’re winning?” I was in that camp and had I not deep down – like every Arsenal fan – known that the way Arsenal were playing back then was not sustainable, I might today be thinking along the same lines as Balague. But I did see that Emery period and I did see that it eventually fell apart. If – and it’s a VERY BIG IF – England win the tournament, then you have to say “fair play, we all need to row back on our Southgate chastising, now” and I too will hold my hands up. But because we can all see the tactical deficiencies, because we can all see that this football is not sustainable, because we know that if you’re looking at teams like the Spanish as a blueprint for success, then this England football will only get so far. Emery’s style and approach only got so far and then eventually the truth outed itself. England and Gareth Southgate cannot lead a charmed life forever. Eventually the talent and knowledge and skill has to rise to the top.

England have, thusfar, relied on individual moments of brilliance. Whether it’s Bellingham’s overhead kick, or Saka’s great striker yesterday, they’ve relied on those one out of ten moments and that won’t work when other teams fashion more chances. Let’s remind ourselves that England’s routes to the semi’s and finals in the last four tournaments have been:

Euro 2024

• Serbia
• Denmark
• Slovenia
• Slovakia
• Switzerland

World Cup 2022

• Iran
• USA
• Wales
• Senegal
• France (knocked out)

Euro 2020

• Scotland
• Croatia
• Scotland
• Czech Republic
• Germany
• Ukraine
• Denmark
• Italy (losing finalists)

World Cup 2018

• San Marino
• Albania
• Poland
• Austria
• Romania
• Croatia (losing semi finalists)

Aside from a German side that at the time was on it’s knees as a country from a footballing perspective, that’s a pretty favourable list of teams. Southgate has led a relatively charmed life and whilst in the early days it was just nice to have England back as a competitive nature with a ‘vibes’ manager, it feels painfully obvious that if they had a guy in there who had more about him tactically, they might be doing a little better performance-wise that would have more English fans thinking it might be ‘on’. But last night he persisted with Kane despite him being pretty anonymous throughout, Foden was given all of the tools yet didn’t really deliver, Bellingham was shunted wide left and was quiet and Trent was once again not given a look in when Kyle Walker looked shaky defensively. It’s all there for Southgate to switch it up a bit, to try different things, but one of his big problems is that once he gets entrenched in playing certain players, that is it. England we better against Switzerland, but not massively so, and they really need to be better at creating chances against the Dutch because I think despite the fact they haven’t been great either in this tournament, you’d think with the players they have they’re going to create even more chances than the Swiss did.

But let’s end today’s musings on the positive notes that it started, which is that us Arsenal fans get to be smug that our Starboy once again showed why he is one of the best in the business and we can all be proud at the Arsenal player who is one of the leaders in this England team. Very happy for him this morning, I can tell you that much.

Catch you all tomorrow.

In the UK it’s even worse because all of the talk is about the General Election as it’s polling day today. By the end of it Rishi Sunak is almost certainly likely to be out of a job; maybe Gareth Southgate should be dropping him a Whatsapp to see how it might feel. After all, regardless of what happens in this Euro’s, that man should probably be out of a job. I don’t want to labour it too much because I’ve talked about it already, but tactically he is completely out of his depth and it is why I am happy that at The Arsenal we’re in a good space with our team and manager.

I watched the England v Slovakia game at Glastonbury on an iPhone and I was with a mate who isn’t really in to his football. He’s a bit of an egg-chaser and he said to me on multiple occasions “are they really supposed to be this sh*t?” or “even I can see that they aren’t moving around the pitch when they should be”. That’s to the uninitiated and self-confessed football hater that he is, but when you’ve got somebody like that making fairly obvious statements that the world can see, you know there’s a problem.

I’m bringing this up because I then spent the time talking to him about The Arsenal. I held my phone up near him and started pointing at patches of green space:

“ok so here’s an example. Rice receives the ball, he’s moved it to that guy on the left. At Arsenal Rice and at least another player will move in to a position here, where the angle of a pass is a bit more like creating a triangle. That means the guy receiving the ball has two options. He can retain possession forward or backward but more importantly there are angles created to keep the ball. It’s all about continuous rotation of players without the ball to create space”

As I found myself explaining Arteta’s Arsenal I also found myself incredibly thankful that in Arteta we have a guy who has coached a collective of players to be so good off the ball. When you’re watching as a fan in the stadium you don’t always see it – I certainly don’t given that i’m in the lower tier – but when you start to watch other teams where you have somewhat (even if only a little) investment in the team, it’s easy to see why we’ve been steadily improving under Arteta. When I watch other domestic club games I don’t always look at the tactical side because I am also invested; I want to see City/United/Liverpool/The Scum/Villa, etc, lose. But international football detaches me somewhat, so I find myself observing the actual process of football and as a result I could explain to my mate why Gareth Southgate was…well…not very good as a coach at all.

There is no football identity. At The Arsenal we have an identity; I heard on numerous occasions from pundits who are half decent about how Arsenal are one of the best teams without the ball last season. That’s because they are coached by Arteta to always be moving. Football isn’t a chess match with pieces still until they move, it’s a game which has a life of its own and if all of your players are making moves, creating space, showing fluidity as a collective, then you retain possession, you move teams around more, you create openings and fashion chances to score goals. I’ve seen a few pundits (not many, granted) try to suggest that low block sides are the reason it has been so difficult and of course, a small part of that is true, but you still have to move around the pitch enough to try to pull the opposition out of position. England don’t do that, but thankfully Arsenal do.

The good news is that The Arsenal are just a couple of weeks away until the pre season friendlies will kick in. We’ve recently confirmed Bournemouth as a game in the States and whilst that in itself is hardly the sexist of fixtures in the world, at least it’s the beginning of us starting to look at how the next tactical evolution of Arteta’s Arsenal might look. And that’s quite exciting to me because basically every season we’ve evolved and changed something a little differently. Whether it’s inverted left backs, inverted right backs, the boxes in the middle of the park or something else. We’ve adapted and changed and each time given our opponents something different to think about each season, each time giving other Premier League analysts something to think about.

I think i’ll leave it there for today. We did a ‘one in, one out, one bangs’ episode on the Same Old Arsenal show last night if you fancy listening, which you can do so here. Amanda is also doing a show tonight in which she’ll be remembering Kevin Campbell, with a couple of great guests and you can check that out tonight at 8pm here.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I wonder if other teams are as critical of their national side as the English? Maybe. I mean after that laboured win yesterday the French press might be asking some questions, but I guess the difference is that at least they looked decent in points, as opposed to the shambles that is the England side under Southgate. Honestly, I know I’m late to the party here (because of the party in Somerset, mind), but that England performance was woeful, disjointed and a bit of a mess. Southgate has a concentrated period of time to get things prepared for international tournaments. There are friendlies, there are qualifiers, there are options you have to try different things in case the worst case happens and you lose players to injury before major tournaments. Mitigate risk, factor in the unexpected, be as prepared as you can.

In March England played Brazil. This was the team line up:

Pickford

Walker   –   Stones   –   Maguire   –   Chilwell

Foden   –   Rice   –   Bellingham

Gallagher   –   Watkins   –   Gordon

Tell me what you can learn from that side? I get that it’s Brazil, but Southgate shouldn’t give a monkey’s, because he was three months away from the Euro’s and he should have been experimenting. He should have been experimenting a year away from the Euro’s, when it comes to Friendlies. But instead he just played his faves in meaningless games and here we are with him bemoaning not having a natural left back at the competition, or that we miss Kalvin Phillips.

Gareth, you’re an excuse maker, and not a very good one. This is on you.

Anyway, at least the transfer window is now open, so we can officially start to get hyper-sensitive to every single rumour that comes out. Apparently we’ve triggered Raya’s signing with Brentford, which is no surprise, but what is a surprise (well, to me, anyway), is that we’re interested in this Italian lad from Bologna Riccardo Calafiori, who apparently would prefer to go to Juve but Bologna don’t like Juve, so they’re looking for suitors overseas. I get that the kid wants Juve though; they’re the perennial winners in the Serie A and even when they don’t win, usually they go back and get close within a year or two and if you’re Italian then that kind of kudos is big. They haven’t won it for four years, as it’s been Inter, Napoli, Milan and Inter since Juve last won it, but given their record is of winning it 30 times where Inter’s is 20 times, it shows you that eventually they do end up getting it right.

I’m also not sure on Italians adapting to the Premier League, although there have of course been some that are a roaring success, but they’ve tended to be from the 90s and the influx we had. Just look at this list voted by fans of the ‘best’ Italians in the Premier League era. Some of you might be arguing Jorginho for us shows it can be done, but let’s be honest, he’s Brazilian that decided to declare for Italy. He moved to Italy at 15 years old so I don’t think that quite counts – he had his grounding as a Brazilian (even if he’s not really the flare player we come to expect of Brazilians).

What about defenders though? After all, Italians are known for their love of the art of defending, right? I had a Google. I’ve found Ogbonna at West Ham, who’s alright, I guess. Marco Materazzi was at Everton, but that was in his formative years before moving back to Italy after one year and doing the business for Inter. This article is a bit old but still they’re choosing Ogbonna as one of the ‘best of all time’ Italian defenders in the Premier League, so I’m thinking this might be a bit of a stretch to get this Bologna kid and expect him to bang for The Arsenal.

Does that mean I will be devastated when he goes to Man City and becomes they’re greatest ever player? I prefer not to speak…

Anyway, I’ve eeked that rambling on as much as I can, so I think I’ll put a pin in today’s utterings. There’s a couple more games in the Round of 16 tonight and I think most people are thinking it’ll be The Netherlands and Austria who will go through to the next round. The Netherlands have flattered to deceive but the Austrian’s have looked pretty good, so I am thinking we’ll see those two sides face off on Saturday when the quarter final is shown in Berlin on Saturday night. By that time we’ll know if England have progressed and we’ll have also have seen what looks like an interesting evening with Spain against Germany and Portugal against France on Friday – that promises to be intriguing.

I’m trying to sort out a pod for tomorrow so will also keep you posted if that goes ahead. But until tomorrow, have a good one.

This will probably be my last post for a few days, as I’m off to Glastonbury with The Management today so will probably not get around to compiling any ramblings until next Tuesday. We were supposed to be going yesterday – hence not penning anything, but sadly the wife’s Grandma – a beautiful lady who was one week away from her 95th birthday – passed away. She led a wonderful life, was a wonderful person and so yesterday The Management and I spent the day in consolation but also in celebration of one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We weren’t sure whether to even head there this weekend, but Frances was a strong, wonderful Northumbrian and she’d have told us not to fuss about her, so we’re going to go, light a candle in the chapel at Glastonbury and find time to think about all the joy she gave in our lives as much as we can today, tomorrow and for the rest of our days.

On the football front there’s a little bit to talk about, although Arsenal have confirmed receipt of a Danish ‘keeper Lucas Nygaard  to the academy yesterday. It’s interesting because I don’t recall us doing interviews and videos with academy prospects, so perhaps this is a new approach, or perhaps it speaks to the fact that everything is so quiet right now. Or perhaps it has more to do with the fact that by the looks of things, until Karl Hein signs this new deal that we’re expecting, we technically have only two goalkeepers at the whole club in Raya and Ramsdale. And Ramsdale is expected to leave the club this summer too.

But as I’ve mentioned earlier in the week, the window doesn’t officially open until 30th June which is on Sunday, so perhaps we’ll start to see the wheels in motion from Monday.

As for the Euro’s, it’s now on a two day ‘rest period before the Round of 16 kicks in and at this point in international tournaments I always kind of feel a little sadder. For me the group stages are the best bit, because you basically get two weeks’ of relentless football matches on all the time. Now as the teams start to think out, you get more ‘in between’ days and less of the volume of matches you can just whack on at any stage. The draw is now settled and whilst most people in England are surprised and pleased at how the draw has fallen favourably with England, I liked this article on Football365 flippantly and somewhat ‘tongue-in-cheekily’ saying that “It is frankly ridiculous that other England managers have not adopted this obviously sensible policy. They are damn fools.”.

It’s true though. Southgate has – during his tenure – basically been handed lucky draws throughout and as a result when he eventually gets the ol’ tin tack he’ll most likely go down as one of the most successful England managers of all time. Under him they got to the semi final of the World Cup in 2018, finished runners up in the Euro’s in 2020 and got to the quarter finals of the World Cup in 2022 losing to the eventual finalists and tournament favourites France. On paper it all looks pretty respectable.

But in 2022 they had an easy group with the US, Iran and Wales and in 2020 they had Scotland, Croatia and the Czech Republic. England under Southgate have made a habit of being flat-track bullies until they’ve come up against any kind of opponent who has anything about them. He must have a bucketload of rabbits feet, four leaf clovers, ladybugs and horseshoes over every door he ever walks through, because that kind of fortunate don’t come often to those in the England job.

And it’s hard not to look at this tournament as being anything else. England play Slovakia in the Round of 16 and if they win that they’ll play Switzerland or an Italy side looking as ropey as they are. Then if they progress there they’ll be up against Austria, Turkey, Romania or the Netherlands before eventually meeting one of the big clubs in the final. The tough side of the draw has Germany, Spain, France and Portugal in it. England could only meet one and it’d be in the final. Southgate is a lucky man, but luck will only get you so far and it still wouldn’t surprise me to see England out before the final, Southgate still doesn’t know his best team after having months to work out different options.

But such is life. Let’s see how this all shakes out. Maybe he can bumble his way straight to the final and if that happens then fair play to him. All I know is that although I think he’s a bit of a fraud of a manager, the potential to see the nation happy, Saka happy, as well as Rice and Ramsdale too, would bring joy to me for sure.

And on that note I’ll call it a day for today. Have yourselves a good one and I’ll be back at some stage in the next four days or so.

Laters people.

Those in the England national team camp who played last night are probably not waking up with that feeling after their poor performance yesterday, that’s for sure! I missed the first 15 or 20 minutes of the game, so didn’t see Kane’s tap in until halftime, but I did see Denmark’s fine finish from outside of the box and I don’t know whether it’s just me or not, but have we seen an inordinate amount of goals from outside of the box? I feel like almost every game has some kind of great long-range finish and from a spectator point of view long may that continue. Goalkeepers at this tournament are probably getting quite cheesed off at this stage and ol’ tiny dino-arms Pickford will be once again annoyed at the closing down that doesn’t appear to be happening from his teammates.

Mind you, there’s a lot that isn’t happening in that England team, starting with the most basic of things: finding another teammate with a pass. It was so weird to see players like Walker, Foden and Kane all stink the place out and even Declan Rice was poor and sloppy with his passing too. This England team is so talented, but once again we find ourselves with a manager who has absolutely no idea how to change things. Honestly after this tournament is done, if he leaves England and is in line waiting for when Ten Haag effs up, then it would be a double-bubble win for everyone who isn’t a United fan if he’s their next manager.

England went ahead against Denmark and absolute sh*t the bed. There was no creativity, it was passive football and on the up side, it made me thankful for Mikel Arteta. That’s because had Arsenal have gone in at halftime 1-1 against a clearly more inferior opponent like the Dane’s, we’d have seen a very different Arsenal side in the second half. He would have spotted where the deficiencies were in the team, plugged the holes and we’d have adapted ‘in game’ to what the opposition had. Gareth Southgate is completely unable to do that and there’s something that Johnny Cochrane said on our ‘one in, one out, one bangs’ podcast that we recorded last night on the Same Old Arsenal podcast last night, Southgate is very much a ‘vibes’ manager. The difference is that a) he’s not a particularly good one, and b) ‘vibes’ managers don’t really work in modern day football. Just look at what teams are looking at when it comes to manager profile these days. It is about systems, processes, projects and control. The last ‘vibes’ manager out there who really stands out is Carlo Ancelotti and whilst he’s doing the business right now, at 65 he’s probably not got another 10 years at the elite top of football.

So that’s the reason that, for me, Southgate should be hooked, although you can’t do that during a tournament, so England fans will just have to choke down these kind of performances, then it’s another tournament that passes England by with a very talented group that is wasted with a no-talent manager.

In the other games Spain beat Jorginho’s Italy and although I didn’t watch it (was on the tube heading home) I couldn’t believe when I saw that Alvaro Morata is STILL in the Spanish national team. I swear, after the nuclear apocalypse, the only things left to inhabit the earth will be cockroaches and Morata – who will still have a seven year contract somewhere tucked under his arm. Fair play to the lad.

From an Arsenal perspective it’s still all very spurious and ‘spray and pray’ from the media it feels like right now. This morning I see us linked with Conor Gallagher but after last night’s “just faaaakin’ run araaand a bit’ performance from him, I’m not sure how that one fits with us. I was with a Chelsea fan last night and I asked him about Gallagher and he said that he’s alright in a team that’s winning, but if you go behind then he feels like a bit of a pointless player on the pitch.

There’s some stuff about the Turkey left back Kadioglu and supposedly he’s available for around £17million. I haven’t watched any of him really but Turkey play tomorrow at 5pm so if I can make it work I might check in on him. Or record the game so I can play it on x2 speed the next day.

The other one that seems to have popped it’s head up again is the Gyokeres links. Decent player, had a great season at Sporting, but two year’s ago he was bumping in goals against Cardiff and Rotherham, so that one isn’t quite filling me with the giddiest of joy I must admit.

One thing I will say, however, is that Arteta and Edu have given us enough good results that they deserve to be trusted, so I will certainly be putting my hopes in to the Swede should we go ahead and pay the cash for his signature.

And with that I will call time on today’s usual ramblings. Have yourselves a wonderful Friday and I’ll be back tomorrow with some football-related thoughts.

Laters peeps.

Firstly and most pleasingly, there was the announcement that he’s signed a new contract at The Arsenal. Much like Aaron Ramsdale, this contract announcement got a really nice and heartfelt video where his teammates talked about him and what he brings to the club:

Benjamin White, as told by his team-mates pic.twitter.com/2O3pcUJu70

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 14, 2024

When I first watched it I thought “ahh, that’s nice. Lovely to see. Then the official site had a nice little interview which you can see here, as well as the usual pictures and text which is here. We’ve known about it for a while, I think Romano tweeted about it ages ago, but the club finally announced it and we can all be glad. But it was only until later on in the day that many started to conclude that this was a very rehearsed and precise reason why the announcement was made yesterday, because on the same day Gareth Southgate announced his England team and spoke specifically about the Ben White situation. We all know he left for ‘personal reasons’ in 2022 and there wasn’t much coming out at that time, although there have been a few stories around that time talking about a bust up. Depending on who you read and believe, it was because either he had a bust up with Grealish, or that he had a bust up with England Coach Steve Holland. The story seems to go in a couple of directions but two prevailing theories are:

• Steve Holland argued and questioned Ben White because of the fact he said he doesn’t watch football
• Steve Holland argued because Ben White didn’t watch the preparation training videos, because Ben White thought they were pointless and he was being targeted in the squad.

I suspect as always there is a little truth and a little embellishment in these stories, but I find it very off that a player of White’s calibre, who Arteta absolutely loves, would refuse to do any background research because he doesn’t care or because he just can’t be arsed. Firstly, if that attitude was displayed at any time whilst playing for Arsenal, I think we all know that Ben White would get the Aubameyang treatment from Arteta. This is a manager who values the ‘estandards’ and the drive and determination more than anyone else. I bet Arteta is even stricter with his players on knowing all the details. So for Ben White to do that at England level seems like a bit of a joke to me. Here’s Ben White talking about how he cried when he got his England call up. This isn’t a man who doesn’t care. This isn’t a man who won’t do everything in his power to play for England. Heck, this is a man who plays through injury, has been described as a warrior and for anyone to question his integrity as a professional should be ashamed of themselves.

Something is fishy here. I smell some bullsh*t and I don’t think it’s coming from Ben White.

This is coming from Gareth Southgate and his camp. Here’s his interview he did in full, which includes the context of the way the question was asked and I will say to Southgate’s credit, he didn’t instigate the discussion. He was asked specifically about Ben White and so he responded. But there are ways of responding. He played the magnanimous manager card and said “the door is always open”, but what he could have said was “the door is always open, but for now he continues to not be available to us and I don’t want to discuss what is a personal matter”. But instead he decided to go in on how he had a call from Edu, told that White didn’t want to be considered, etc. Clearly what Southgate is trying to do is put this all on Ben White and focus the attention on it being his decision. But why would a guy who has openly admitted he was desperate to play for England, suddenly decide that he doesn’t want to be selected?

Southgate refuted claims that there was an issue with Steve Holland, but having watched what he was saying again this morning, I am going to 100% say that I do not believe that Southgate was telling the truth. He is defending his coaching team and doubling down on that, which you’d expect him to, but by name checking Steve Holland too, it seems to me that this is fairly obvious that something has happened with that coach, which leads you to start re-looking at the above and when you again think about Ben White at The Arsenal, it feels like this has everything to do with Steve Holland. Gareth Southgate is telling porkies and Ben White is the victim, because now all of the headlines today are about Ben White snubbing England. It hits his own image and Southgate has been the instigator of it. So now we see why Arsenal went in to bat for their man and we saw the lovely media that went on the website on the same day Southgate decided to try to torch Ben White and his reputation, all the while playing the “no issue from us, he’s always welcome” spiel.

Screw Gareth Southgate. Screw Steve Holland. Ben doesn’t need you because he has an army of Arsenal fans behind him and we’ll back our lad all day long.

The up side is that White gets time with his friends and family and he’ll also get more time to prep for this intense period we’re about to go through. If we get time to rest up Ben and have him on full power for the last couple of months of the season, happy days, as far as I’m concerned.

I’ll leave it there for today I think. Back tomorrow with some more Arsenal musings no doubt. You guys have a good one.

England and their medical team must have conversations with all clubs about players when they are about to announce their squads, which they do a good eight or nine days before any match takes place (probably because flights and accommodation details need to be sorted out by agents, etc), so that conversation must have had some confirmation that Saka will be fit and available for next weekend. If the club were telling the England camp that it’s a hamstring strain and he’ll probably be out for a while, then he just wouldn’t have been named and we’d all be a lot more worried about him longer term. So if you’re going to look at the glass half full you can say that even if he doesn’t play this weekend, hopefully he will be fine for after the international break.

Of course knowing our luck we’ll lose him this weekend in an important match, he’ll go away with England and pick up a knock, then we’ll lose him when he returns to The Arsenal in broken pieces because he played 90 minutes in a meaningless friendly against Australia.

But as it stands, with no new information until Arteta does that press conference, we have to look at the intel we have and say at least it isn’t a long term injury. Remember when the Ghana FA didn’t name Partey in their squad for the last international break, then let it slip that he’d suffered an injury himself and would be out, before Arsenal had even said anything? Well I suspect that would be the case with England had they not already spoken to the club.

That doesn’t mean he’ll be fine for Sunday though and it may be a case of the muscular injury he had when backheeling the ball in the first half just hasn’t repaired itself just yet. Saka may only be 22, but even at such a young age and when the body can repair itself so quickly, it might be asking a lot for him to be ready for Sunday. I’ve just had a cheeky Google about hamstring strains or tears and the NHS website has this to say. A ‘few days’ for a muscle pull or strain would give us hope, but this is guidance based on the average person, not an elite athlete. Saka could right now of this moment be ok to walk around, maybe even go for light jogging, but that doesn’t mean he could be available for intermittent sprinting, turning, etc. In elite sport you also need to be mindful of those marginal gains. A 75% fit Bukayo Saka is very different from even a 90% Bukayo Saka and as fans because we watch football so closely, we are all attuned enough to be able to see when a player isn’t quite right. It just doesn’t look the same. I remember seeing Aaron Ramsey often tke a few games after injury before we’d get the player that we all knew and loved banging in goes and delivering those lung-busting runs. But before we got him at his best you’d normally have to go through half a dozen games in which his performances were a bit ‘meh’.

Against the best team in the world, the treble winners, a side with six wins out of seven in the league this season already, you can’t afford to have players who are not 100% on it. So there will be a lot of deliberation and discussion happening right up until the morning of the game from Arteta and his coaching staff on what to do re: Saka I suspect. Unless he’s just clearly not fit, then it becomes about who can replace him.

And that in itself is a challenge, because as we all know, there isn’t really a natural understudy to Saka. Fabio Vieira feels like he is better as a centrally located player. Emile Smith Rowe hasn’t played there much at all and in any case, it doesn’t feel as though Arteta has him as his next in line. Reiss Nelson has once (that I can remember) deputised for Saka in recent months when he came on against Forest and bagged two goals at home last season. Trossard played wide right when we beat Leeds 4-1 at the Emirates towards the end of last season, but I can’t remember him having a blinder of a game and in any case, I suspect he will take up that wide left position instead of the seemingly injured Martinelli. Gabriel Jesus has operated there but against it is taking a player out of his best position and it means Eddie getting the nod centrally, and recently I don’t think he’s performed particularly well in those big games against tough opponents.

So it is a real worry if we’re missing Saka as well as Martinelli on Sunday. A real worry indeed.

There’s not really a lot going on in the Arsenal world right now. From the Arsenal Women perspective there was the show of faith in Jans Eidevall in his new contract being given to him by the club, which feels very familiar to when Mikel was given a public backing when we went through the tough period during the COVID era. But it was only May last year that Eidevall signed a new deal, so this feels like a very public statement by the club, because we’re only 16 months since his last deal. I don’t really know enough about women’s football to know whether or not this is a good idea or not, but clearly the club are backing their man and now he needs his team to deliver on the football pitch.

Right, that’s me done for the day I think, so I’ll catch you all tomorrow when we’ve heard from Mikel.

have a good one.

The win over Iran had purpose, there was a speed of passing, an organised England team who were ruthless in their finishing and looked like they may have turned a corner in terms of realising the potential of some of these players.

The draw with the USA last night felt like a very large backwards step. There was no speed of passing. There was no progression in the football quickly enough. There was no rapid movement of the ball and the English press had no real element of co-ordination about it.

In short, what we all saw yesterday was an England team just like all of its predecessors in most international tournaments of the last 20+ years: less than the sun of its parts.

We should at this juncture give some credit to the US team. They had a game plan that was expertly executed. Their press looked good. They played well and their midfield looked like it was functioning. They allowed England to have sterile possession at the back and when it got in to midfield they hunted it down and turned the ball over. In defence they were hardly troubled all night and if Matty Turner and Bukayo Saka were having a conversation before the match about the game, I doubt either would have thought they’d be speaking afterwards and talking about how little he’d have been troubled by his Arsenal teammate.

But whilst Bukayo was quiet, he was one of the least of England’s troubles, because Mount was utterly anonymous all night. Sterling barely got in to the game and Harry Kane did little. There was lots of talk about the firepower in the England team before this match, but on a showing like that yesterday, there won’t be too many teams worried about what this side can offer this tournament.

Maybe it was just an off day. Maybe some players just didn’t want to lose and so took the draw. Maybe Bellingham is a fantastic talent but he had his ‘one game’ against Iran? Maybe this England team isn’t as good as everyone thinks. Every team can have an off day.

But whilst players can have an off day, as a coach, what you have to do is make decisions that are going to change things in your favour. That is where Southgate failed big time yesterday. At halftime it was fairly obvious the US had a game plan that was working, so as somebody watching you’re hoping that the coach/manager sees that and makes changes. Change the set up, change the personnel, change something. Anything.

But Southgate sent his side out for the second half to play exactly the same way.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Southgate waited until 68 minutes before doing anything. His decision to bring on Henderson for Bellingham was bizarre. The US is a young team with legs, so you’re bringing on an ageing more defensive-minded midfielder for the more attack-minded Bellingham?

His decision to bring Grealish on looked half decent and he got in to some decent positions, but he became isolated after a few initial good showings and the game quickly slotted back in to the pattern of the US having control. Mason Mount stayed on and continued to do nothing. It was baffling.

But then again we must remember who Gareth Southgate is: a tactically limited manager who has fostered a good environment for talented players. That is why at times England have looked good over the last three years, but ultimately they will always fall short; the manager does not know how to make the right tactical calls to change games. Plus he has ‘his’ players and he won’t deviate away from them. The fact Maguire always plays is an example of that, but to be fair to Maguire, he’s looked ok on this competition and has been the least of our worries.

Last night was an opportunity to win the group and render the Wales game irrelevant. Now the English team go in to it knowing that it is a straight knockout. If Wales win they go through. If England win they go through. The draw also puts England through but Wales will be fired up for that and having watched England yesterday, they’ll know exactly what to do to set up against them.

The Welsh will be massively fired up for that one and to be fair to their fans, they’ll be in full song and bring the pressure as the underdogs. There’s no doubt that they are technically less superior than England, but then again so were the US team, and they showed that as long as you are organised and tactically on plan, you can easily stifle this England team. That will give Wales plenty of hope.

It’s France v Denmark today which looks quite tasty, as well as Argentina vs Mexico. The Argies have to win to get their tournament back on track and I suspect they will, but the other game intrigues me, because I think it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out, as I don’t think France will get it their own way against the Danes. We shall see.

Right, I’ll call time on todays blog proceedings, I think. I’m off for a run and another day of footie watching. Catch you sexy bitches soon – maybe tomorrow, but maybe not, as I have a belated birthday party organising this evening.

Toodle-loo!

Yet yesterday I witnessed – certainly for the first time in as long as I can remember – a performance from an England team which will have made everyone sit up and take notice.

England were…..good.

Not only that, but they put in a performance which we’ve seen from the other big nations year after year, competition after competition. The 4-0 victory over an admittedly poor Ukrainian team was the most controlled football match I’ve seen in a knockout competition for England. It was methodical, patient, probing and when needed, deadly. Very, VERY, un-England like. If you’d have turned the TV black and white and blurred the faces, you’d have thought it was the Italians, or the Germans, in a white kit, who were overseeing yet another win on the way to yet another semi final.

We don’t normally get treated to performances like that as English people. What we get is nervy, tense encounters, with mistakes and silly errors. Maybe a penalty scored or conceded, or life being made hard in some manner, yet we never really saw any of that and instead witnessed a possession-based England build up carefully and composed, then when openings were available they struck. The early goal inside five minutes helped but in truth England were never really tested and could see out the game as comfortable winners by the end.

I was telling the assembled family members that I was with that this was tournament football. It is rarely the end-to-end basketball stuff. You do get that sometimes but the teams that eventually win these competitions play possession based football, slower build up, control games and unpick the lock when the moment is right. That’s what this England team seem to have learned this competition: how to play international tournament football.

Can they go on and do it all the way? Not sure. The Danes made it through by beating Czech Republic in a tense affair and they will be the toughest opponent England has faced so far by some distance. They are spurred on by the pain and suffering of losing Erikson so horribly from their squad in the first game and that has helped to play a little part in their success to get to the semi finals, but they are also in themselves a good team with some dangerous players. They will at least be able to lay a glove on England next Wednesday, you’d expect, so it won’t be as comfortable as it was against the Ukrainians.

I cannot see England going this whole tournament without conceding either. It’s been brilliant so far but feels crazy to even imagine it given how so many people were talking about the defence being the biggest problem. They have turned into the bedrock; the foundation that this campaign has been built on, but they will be tested much more than ever before in the net game and, if we’re lucky, the game after that.

England haven’t been behind yet, either, so we are yet to see how this England team will react to going a goal behind, or even conceding an equaliser. That is when we will find out if this side are as good as some are suggesting. Perhaps they are. But until we go through that moment and come out the other side of the discomfort, we won’t know whether this generation of players really are able to finally wash away the pains of so many years of disappointment.

Props should also be given to Southgate. He’s overseeing this current run of dominance and he’s now got England to two consecutive semi finals. That’s nothing to be sniffed at and whilst I don’t think he’s tactically or strategically the best manager out there, there’s no doubt he’s been able to get a tune out of these players. He is oozing calm at the moment and that is just what we as a nation have always needed. Let’s see if he can do it for two more games. There’s a legacy and legendary status to be had if he does.

In terms of Arsenal news today, well, there isn’t really that much to be honest. There’s talks on the Guendouzi to Marseille deal being done and we’re supposedly getting £10million for him. Given the problems he’s caused, the attitude, the fact he didn’t really set the Bundesliga alight and we’ll have made profit on him, I’d say we’ll take that loan option with an obligation to buy next season. Suits us fine and we can all move on with our lives. The other stuff is that Ødegaard put a message saying thanks to Arsenal and the fans for having him, essentially confirming what we already knew and that he’s going back to Real Madrid. It means getting that ESR deal sorted and then getting another creative playmaker in needs to be one of the top priorities, but it has always been the case and I think we all knew Odegaard would probably be remaining at Real Madrid next season anyway. Good luck to him.

Nothing else really to report. Martinelli is off to the Olympics and that will impact the first couple of games, but I doubt he’d have been a starter anyway, so it’s not a massive problem for us. Just hope he and Gabriel come back without injury.

And on that note I’ll say I’m done for today. You have yourselves and merry little Sunday and I’ll be back with you tomorrow.

Laters peeps!

Internationals, eh? They’re like a six month check up to the dentist; thoroughly unwanted.

Incidentally I’ve decided to compound my own misery by having to do that this weekend n’all.

Maybe I’ll have something on in the background as I’m doing other household chores, but I possibly won’t, so it’ll be a weekend away from the Football and that suits me fine after last weekend’s results. But for a professional footballer like Jack Wilshere, playing for your country in any game is a thrill and an honour, so this weekend I can understand why he might be a little frustrated.

After all he is playing. He is getting game time at The Arsenal and he has proved his value to the squad this season. Arsène has already said he is going to get minutes in the Premier League and the hope has to be that we see that transpire into some England call ups, for Jack’s sake.

But what has prompted me to talk specifically about Wilshere the morning is the interesting article I read by Henry Winter, who talks about the confusing messages when it comes to Wilshere and the need for him to play in his position and play in the Premier League. 

Henry uses examples of Loftus-Cheek and Joe Gomez – both currently playing out of position in their current teams – to show that despite his comments his actions run contradictory to what he’s saying. And he’s right.

But where Henry doesn’t go into much detail is why he might think Southgate is behaving with one rule for Jack and another rule for others. I get that. He has connections, he attends press conferences, he is a professional journo and can’t just play the guessing game as to an England managers motives.

I can though.

I think Jack isn’t being picked because it’s an easy target for now. Southgate wants to show a bit of strength and also perhaps have less and less to do with the old regime so when he has even a sniff of a chance of dropping one of the ‘old regime’ he’ll take it. Wilshere not playing in Premier League? Take it. Wilshere not playing in a deeper lying role? Take it. Arsenal play a different style to England in the way they press? Take that too.

It suits Southgate not to have him in this squad.

Of course if Jack does start playing regularly in the first team he will most likely get picked out of necessity because England don’t have another player anywhere near his talent and vision right now. So if he does start playing I think Southgate chooses him out of necessity rather than choice. But right now this works for him and he can get more weeks under his belt with distance away from the former regime.

Of course from an Arsenal fan perspective that suits us fine because we all get to sleep safe in the knowledge that Wilshere won’t be Daniel Aggered on international duty. There’s also the benefits of Not having to bother watching England because he’s the only real reason most of us would tune in.

So that’s my thoughts on that. A Friday deserves a good conspiracy theory and now you have yours.

Later people.

Internationals, eh? They’re like a six month check up to the dentist; thoroughly unwanted.

Incidentally I’ve decided to compound my own misery by having to do that this weekend n’all.

Maybe I’ll have something on in the background as I’m doing other household chores, but I possibly won’t, so it’ll be a weekend away from the Football and that suits me fine after last weekend’s results. But for a professional footballer like Jack Wilshere, playing for your country in any game is a thrill and an honour, so this weekend I can understand why he might be a little frustrated.

After all he is playing. He is getting game time at The Arsenal and he has proved his value to the squad this season. Arsène has already said he is going to get minutes in the Premier League and the hope has to be that we see that transpire into some England call ups, for Jack’s sake.

But what has prompted me to talk specifically about Wilshere the morning is the interesting article I read by Henry Winter, who talks about the confusing messages when it comes to Wilshere and the need for him to play in his position and play in the Premier League. 

Henry uses examples of Loftus-Cheek and Joe Gomez – both currently playing out of position in their current teams – to show that despite his comments his actions run contradictory to what he’s saying. And he’s right.

But where Henry doesn’t go into much detail is why he might think Southgate is behaving with one rule for Jack and another rule for others. I get that. He has connections, he attends press conferences, he is a professional journo and can’t just play the guessing game as to an England managers motives.

I can though.

I think Jack isn’t being picked because it’s an easy target for now. Southgate wants to show a bit of strength and also perhaps have less and less to do with the old regime so when he has even a sniff of a chance of dropping one of the ‘old regime’ he’ll take it. Wilshere not playing in Premier League? Take it. Wilshere not playing in a deeper lying role? Take it. Arsenal play a different style to England in the way they press? Take that too.

It suits Southgate not to have him in this squad.

Of course if Jack does start playing regularly in the first team he will most likely get picked out of necessity because England don’t have another player anywhere near his talent and vision right now. So if he does start playing I think Southgate chooses him out of necessity rather than choice. But right now this works for him and he can get more weeks under his belt with distance away from the former regime.

Of course from an Arsenal fan perspective that suits us fine because we all get to sleep safe in the knowledge that Wilshere won’t be Daniel Aggered on international duty. There’s also the benefits of Not having to bother watching England because he’s the only real reason most of us would tune in.

So that’s my thoughts on that. A Friday deserves a good conspiracy theory and now you have yours.

Later people.

I for one was overjoyed when I heard it was yesterday morning. It meant that the weekend’s football can officially start. Sadly, there was still a little too much about why Theo couldn’t perform for England, whether Southgate is too nice, plus his own future as a possible manager of the national team. I’m pretty sure he put the speculation of England on the back burner with his response on his own future, but was quick to praise Southgate and defend Theo. He told the journo that asked about Theo, that he was a bit harsh, but personally I’d have offered a slightly different assessment as to why Walcott couldn’t replicate his Arsenal form:

Because England are sh*t. They’ve been sh*t for some time and when you take a good player and put him in to a sh*t team, it can happen that they play a bit, well, sh*t.

Seems perfectly logical to me, no?

Hopefully we can ignore all future stupid questions relating to the perennial underachievers that is the England national team. I’m just pleased we can ignore that the national team even exists for the next month. It’s all about The Arsenal now.

And so it is with a game against Swansea and it’s Bob Bradley’s first in charge of his new club. Arsene obviously had nice things to say about the man, but there’s always that worry of new manager syndrome, so I’m sure he’s wary of the response of the Swansea players. Let’s face it, it’s not as if Swansea haven’t done us over a couple of times at The Emirates, so we need to ensure that the momentum of the pre interlull remains in the team. The good news is that we don’t seem to have picked up any injuries from international duty, but Olivier Giroud’s mysterious foot injury still keeps him out. Unless he’s developed some form of acute leprosy, i’d start to questions whether or not he’s going to get any game time at this rate. I know Arsene gave a good overview of exactly why he’s been out so long, but something smells a bit fishy to me. He’s been sat on that naughty step since PSG away and I would have thought Arsene would have had him back in the team by now. Perhaps Arsene is fast-tracking Perez, having seen how much the mobility of Alexis, Theo and Iwobi has worked? That might be a decent enough explanation. After all, we all know how much Giroud slows the game down when he’s in the team and if the blueprint has been set with what Arsene has seen over the last few weeks, perhaps it has informed Arsene’s decision and we’ll see a phasing out of the Handsome Frenchman.

That would be a shame, because he’s a good player and has been effective for us for many years, plus he offers an alternative. The thought that Arsenal have a plan B and plan C is certainly an attractive one to my eyes, so I’d be sad to see that we’re discarding one of those because we have a naughty boy who was naughty in France a month or so ago. We’ll just wait to see on what happens with this particular narrative, I suppose.

The other injury which continues to irritate is the Ramsey one. Arsene gave a bit of an update here too. I think this one is a little more believable, because we all know how much Arsene loves Rambo and over the years has always tried to find room for him in his team, even if it’s not quite in his natural position. Added to that, you’ve got the fact that he’s had a fair few injuries, so naturally you’d expect the club to be extra cautious. When he is fit though, if the team is performing well like it did before the internationals, it’ll be a fight for the Welshman to get in to the team.

Arsene also gave the two fingers to a possible bit of Barca tapping up with Bellerin, by telling the world that these days, where you originally come from doesn’t matter. Perhaps he’s right, but perhaps there is a little hint in there about the history of Arsenal players heading over to Barca. Overmans,Petit, Vermaelen, Hleb, and Song all failed to really impress at all. Henry managed to have a good season, but he was a special case and as for Fabregas, well if ever there was an example of a boy ‘going home’ going wrong, that would be it. Personally I think Bellerin would be more of a success than Fabregas if he goes, because right back is a little more forgiving than central midfield and Bellerin wouldn’t have the same level of competition that Fabregas had. However, I still want to see him tell Barca to bugger off, so when the inevitable tapping comes up let’s hope he does that.

And, my friends, is just about the from me for today. The Management got some not very nice family news yesterday, so I’ll be travelling up north with her, meaning I’ll miss the game. But back tomorrow with a match preview, and I thank the internet for iPhone streams :-).

Laters.