With Arsenal fans and Arsene Wenger hoping for Arsenal to hit the ground running when the current international break is over and the rollercoaster that is this season’s Premier League runs to a conclusion, the most important thing for the Gunners involved in the various games for their respective countries is to not pick up an injury and it is so far so good on that front, with Hector Bellerin, Alexis Sanchez and David Ospina all having completed 90 minutes last night with no problems.
And we hope for the same thing tonight, with four more Arsenal stars possibly in action. It would be nice, though, if France were to go easy on our centre back Laurent Koscielny as the Frenchman is a key figure to our title hopes and he has had some issues with fitness already this season. I’m sure the Arsenal defender will want to play the full game as France have good options in the shape of Sakho, Varane Mathieu and more and Koscielny will want to lay down a marker for Euro 2016, but hopefully Dider Deschamps will want to look at a few players and go easy on Kos.
His team mate for club and country Olivier Giroud is a different matter though, as the big centre forward could do with a confidence boost and with Karim Benzema left out of these friendly games he should get the chance to shine. It would be great for Arsenal if Giroud was to find the finishing that was so good in the first half of the season. And as he has not been playing much for Arsenal recently a good workout is probably just what he needs.
The other two Arsenal stars likely to be in action are Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny who will be opposite sides as Nigeria take on Egypt in an Africa Nations qualifier and what Arsenal fans want from this is two good confidence building performances from the Gunners.
But why do I have a horrible feeling that something will go wrong for Arsenal over the next few days of internationals?