Arsenal fans got just what we wanted from our internationals tonight as both Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud started for France in their friendly game away to the Netherlands. Both of them came through the match unscathed, which was always a worry as Arsene Wenger has already had more than his fair share of injury problems to cope with.
There was more good news for Arsenal with the performance of our players as well, most notably from the centre forward who has been struggling in front of goal for a while now and who Wenger could really do with finding top gear again. The French forward took his chance in the absence with an all round good performance capped with a well taken goal.
He put himslef about fort the 70 plus minutes he was on the pitch, chasing and harrying and doing a great job to bring the ball down as a target man and to link up with the other French attackers. He also finished his one good chance very well, swivelling in the box and firing past the Dutch keeper.
Hopefully now Giroud will get another start and play well again against Russia on Tuesday and be ready to help us chase down the top two in the Premier League.
Koscielny completed the game but it was not a heavy test for him even though Holland did come back from two down to draw level before conceding a late winner. The Arsenal defender was in control and on the first foot and hopefully he will come back to north London in a good frame of mind as well.
Arsenal need all the help we can get but will this international break prove to be yet another turning point in this strange season?