The international break is now over and all of the Arsenal players that joined up with their respective nations will be heading back to north London, if they are not back already. And the most positive thing to come out of the last 10 days is that not a single one of our stars has returned with a new injury problem.
The one concern for Arsene Wenger and the fans was that our French centre back Laurent Koscielny might have aggravated the back problem that kept him out of the Liverpool game. Koscielny had returned fro the Newcastle game and completed France´s friendly against Portugal but was then rested against Serbia amid some rumours that he had a recurrence of the problem.
But it now looks aas though he was rested as a precaution or for tactical reasons, as the Evening Standard are reporting that Koscielny is fine and will be in the team to play Stoke on Saturday, as long as nothing untoward happens in the meantime.
Gabriel, Walcott and Gibbs did not feature for their countries last night, while Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ospina and Joel Campbell (who claimed an assist) all came through their games unscathed. We are expecting Jack Wilshere back in training very soon and that leaves just Rosicky and Welbeck in the treatment room.
There is concern about the England striker, however, whose return from injury has been delayed many times already, forcing Welbeck to have an operation. Wenger suggested that he might be back in action around Christmas but that optimism was put into question when the England manager Roy Hodgson as he thinks it might take more like six months.
That would be bad news for Arsenal, of course, but on the whole the injury situation at the club does seem to be a lot better than usual.