There was plenty of Arsenal interest at Wembley on Saturday evening as England began their Nations League campaign with a 3-2 defeat against world champions Spain.
Seven Gunners were involved across the two national team squads, with Ezri Konsa, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Bukayo Saka all starting for Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup third-place finishers.
Eberechi Eze was also among the England substitutes but remained unused, while Declan Rice had already withdrawn from international duty through injury.
For Spain, David Raya and Martin Zubimendi were unused substitutes, while Mikel Merino was introduced in the 82nd minute.
Three Gunners start for England at Wembley
Spain took the lead inside two minutes through Lamine Yamal before England responded impressively.
Anthony Gordon levelled after 36 minutes before Harry Kane put the Three Lions ahead shortly afterwards, with Saka involved in another dangerous England attack when his burst forward resulted in Kane firing narrowly wide.
England had an opportunity to establish a two-goal advantage early in the second half, only for Kane to hit the crossbar from the penalty spot.
Saka also went close himself later in the contest, curling an effort narrowly wide.
For Lewis-Skelly, another senior England start represents valuable experience against arguably the strongest national team in world football, while Konsa was again trusted in Tuchel’s defence.
Merino joins the action as Spain turn it around
Spain showed exactly why they are world champions after the interval.
Álex Baena restored parity before Mikel Oyarzabal completed the turnaround to give Spain a 3-2 victory in their Nations League opener.
Merino then entered proceedings for the closing stages, meaning four Arsenal players featured on the Wembley pitch across the evening.
Raya and Zubimendi remained on the Spain bench, while Eze was not called upon by Tuchel.
From an Arsenal perspective, the main priority during this extended international break will always be seeing Mikel Arteta’s players return to North London fit and ready for domestic action.
International break curse strikes Arsenal again as Havertz is set for scan
How do you think Saka, Lewis-Skelly and Konsa performed against the world champions? Let us know in the comments below.
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Watched the match.
I enjoyed it.
But the break is too long
Premier League returns 10 October
It’s now resealable to trust Lewis-Skelly as his absence resulted in the collapse of the England midfield, immediately he was substituted, England midfield could not competitively compete against Spanish players in the middle of the field. His absence in arsenal last epl match suffices. Lewis-Skelly has come of age.
I had to laugh on reading a report on the BBC Website. In one of their articles, they’re asking did the charges against City have an effect on the current and past City players in last nights game.
The lengths these journalists go to in making excuses. You really can’t make this stuff up, or maybe you can!. 🤔🤦♂️
Individually and collectively, the England back four were poor and were repeated opened up by the movement of the Spaniards.Konsa never looked at ease and was not helped by Guehi who seemed all at sea in terms of positional sense.Since he moved to Man City more demands have been placed on him to push forward much more than he had to at Palace, and this has had an adverse impact on his game defensively.Neither Quansah nor O,Reilly are natural full backs and their deficiencies were there for all to see yesterday.As for Saka and MLS, while they worked hard they did not have a big impact on the game which was the case with Bellingham, Gordon and to a lessor extent, Anderson.A very entertaining match to watch, but for those who think England were unluckly, after Spain went one up, they proceeded to miss three clear one on one chances, which had they been taken could have been a huge embarrassment for Tuchel.As it is, To leave out Alexander Arnold in favour Quansah beggars belief as far as I am concerned.
Me thinks we’ve got another dud manager in Tuchel. What he did versus the Argentinians tells you all you need to know about him.
And then afterwards to say that 99.9 percent of the fans don’t mention the Argentinian game to him is a bare faced lie in my opinion.
The man is deluded, and the sooner he is replaced the better.
I think we will probably suffer the same fate as England when playing elite team like psg,barca.. the major difference between spain and england was the attack,
I feel England’s midfield & defence can match spain’s or atleast close to them but when u see what yamal and co is doing in attack and you watch saka, you’ll want to send saka back to play leftback, it’s that terrible. Saka can’t beat anybody, so he can’t assist, score or influence the game so how can we call him a winger, we are in trouble
Our LW looks equally terrible too, tzolis is not up to it and eze has bocome fat, rusty and low in confidence, he’s a real let down, I expected much more from him and I hope he gets his mojo back, coz he’s the most talented of all our attackers .
Again Saka is becoming aubameyang ( a very sad thing to see), arteta should start dropping saka now before they start having confrontations like auba’s case.
As it is, he’s not leading the team, the attack as he’s supposed afterall he’s the starboy saka
I wish we still have nwaneri but as it is arteta needs to start patronising special downman, i dont care his age.
Madueke should be considered too, I know his final ball is close to p00r but he still disturbs opposition defence and open them up.
We must sign an elite winger come January especially if eze doesn’t improve, I don’t have much faith in tzolis sadly. I lost counting the number Of clear chances spain attack created against England last night
We need more creativity in the attack, our central attackers can still be managed but our wide attackers are looking awful coz they don’t create chances .
COYGunners