There will have been a few members of the Arsenal squad waiting for the announcement of the first England sqaud chosen by the new manager with more hope than expectation, especially as Sam Allardyce is thought to have something of a grudge against the Gunners as well as his style of football being quite different to that employed by our own boss Arsene Wenger.
So KIeran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will not have been too surprised to see that their names were not on the list, although both will still hope that they can change the thinking of big Sam with their performances at club level over the course of the season.
One Arsenal player who will certainly be feeling down at the minute about the England squad reported in full by Sky Sports is our injury plagued midfield star Jack Wilshere. It is fair to say that young Jack did not have a very good Euro 2016, but you could say the same for almost every one of the England squad in France and the Gunner did at least have the excuse of not being match fit.
When he was fit Wilshere was a key player under Roy Hodgson and he played a big part in getting the three lions to France so now that he is fit again I am sure he was confident of featuring in this first international break but instead he will be twiddling his thumbs at home while the likes of Henderson and Alli are in, as is the West Ham man Antonio for the first time.
Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that Theo Walcott has been called up, as most people thought his chances were negligible. Perhaps it was his performance in the win at Watford that swung the balance in his favour, so it will be interesting to see if he plays and how the new boss sets England up to play.
Bob.