With Arsenal now having turned from a team of mainly foreign players to being built around a strong core of young British players, the Gunners now find themselves in the strange position of being the main provider of players for the England national team.
And the young Gunners are doing very well for Roy Hodgson. Once again our players were a key part of England winning their friendly match against Scotland at Celtic Park and ending the year on a real high after the disappointment of the World Cup. Maybe England would have fared much better in Brazil if the likes of Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had been fit.
Jack and the Ox started the game tonight along with Danny Welbeck and while our new cerntre forward had another good game up front, it was the other two that put England in front, with Wilshere raking a beautiful long diagonal ball which beat the Scotland defenders and allowed Chambo to deftly head it past Marshall in the Scotland goal.
Apart from Rooney, who scored the other two goals in a 3-1 win, the three Gunners stole the show. Neither Walcott nor Chambers played but Kieran Gibbs got the last half an hour or so to replace Shaw. There was a minute or so of concern when Welbeck looked like he may have tweaked a hamstring but he was soon running perfectly normally again and was then subbed off.
So apart from THeo not getting any minutes on the pitch, it has been a fantastic international break for Arsenal’s England stars. And just as playing together for the club seems to be helping England, hopefully the reverse will be true when they play for Arsenal.