Of course we Arsenal fans are a lot more concerned about the fitness or injury situation of our big name players on international duty, with Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny and Santi Cazorla of particular concern as they appear for the respective national teams. So it would be nice if these Arsenal stars are used sparingly, although it is pretty unlikely to be honest.
But there are quite a few fringe players and young Gunners that have been called up and the situation is different with them, as they could do with the playing time and the valuable experience gained in international matches. Hopefully we will see Gabriel for Brazil, Szczesny for Roma, Alex Iwobi for Nigeria, Serge Gnabry for Germany under 21s and David Ospina again for Colombia.
Three young Gunners have already played, with on loan midfield starlet Gedion Zelalem playing the whole of the USA under 23 side´s friendly defeat to Brazil on Wednesday and he should feature again for them on Sunday.
And last night another on loan Gunner Chuba Akpom played 70 minuted for the England under 21s in Bosnia. It was a useful but unproductive game for our promising young striker as the game ended with no goals, but that was a much better result for our centre back Calum Chambers, especially as he played the whole 90 minutes.
So while we bite our fingers and hope that the first team Arsenal internationals either don´t play or at least come back fit and fresh, we can relax and enjoy the international exploits of the other Gunners.