England is facing Iceland in their UEFA Nations League game this afternoon and at the time of publishing this article, the score was 0-0.
The English team is filled with players who have been given the chance to play their first game for their country.
Due to the covid19 pandemic, several players have been unavailable for the national team and that has given chances to the new invitees.
Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles is one of the players that has been included in the squad and will have hoped to get the chance to start for his country.
The Arsenal utility man has been in fine form for the past few months and after he put in a Man of the Match performance in the Community Shield game against Liverpool, Southgate decided to hand him an England callup.
He will expect to play some part in at least one of the two games, but he has missed the starting XI for the first game against Iceland and some Arsenal fans are not happy with that.
After England revealed their starting XI for the game, here are some of the reactions on Twitter as cited by Football London:
“Who on earth is playing left back? Should have been Maitland-Niles. #ICEvsENG”
“Maitland-Niles not starting, TV off.”
“Kieren Trippier is playing the right back position while Maitland-Niles is on the bench”
“This game needs Maitland Niles #fofty”
OT.. We lost 3-2 to Villa at the Emirates today…. Auba with both goals….
the squad were off for intertional games, hoping not a bad loss.
Saw Willian, Ozil and Ceballos in the pictures…
Sue, I stand to be corrected but look what I saw….
Stuart Macfarlane posted on Getty.
The men that featured against Aston villa…
Goalkeeper: Emiliano Martinez
Defenders: William Saliba, Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin, Cedric Soares, Tolaji Bola
Midfielders: Mesut Ozil, Joe Willock, Mo Elneny, Dani Ceballos
Forwards: Willian, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Nico Pepe, Alex Lacazette.
Arteta probably tried a different formation and the likes against villa. He also tried something new against QPR where we won 4:3. Well it is fine to experiment now before the season starts
Cheers Uzi, nice one! 👍
Always a bummer to lose, even if it is just a friendly! Although next Saturday is when it really matters. Hope our players return from international duty unscathed 🙏
@ Sue, that score is not good enough, we are at home even though is friendly match and played behind closed door…
I know, Wale.. I was surprised especially being at home. But next Saturday is when it counts..
Be interested to know who played in defence. Declan
If we even had a defence 🤣 shipped 3 against QPR also!!
Holding
Ozil Willian and Ceballos played.
We always seem to play poorly anytime Xhaka doesn’t play.
I think we’ve probably only lost one match under MA, which Xhaka played. Such is his influence.
Maybe Ozil was in defence. Lol
Can we get a review of the match
This is why i want us to get partey by all means..it seems ozil is gradually getting back..not bad though
Stop all this Partey rubbish. Must Partey come to Arsenal? Partey this Partey that. He has been in Athletico Madrid for years, how many trophies have they won?
So your criteria for quality players now are if they play for a team that wins trophies. What a twisted mentality. If that were the case, we would not have signed the entire invincibles team, de bruyne and all other quality players would still be were they are, I mean how many trophies did Aubameyang win with dortmund. We should have left him at dortmund then so we’ll be playing championship football next season. I would never understand how some people get to be football fans. You should go watch cricket or something.
So, yet another 100% certainty proves to be incorrect.
I’m beginning to think that any 100 % proclamation has actually been correct?
That just leaves a certain Guendouzi out in the cold, as Mikel Arteta stands by his word and selects those players who show the kind of commitment he demands… I’m sure we all are backing him to the hilt 100%?!?!