After seeing Mohamed Elneny be on the losing side to Uruguay this afternoon I stared to wonder which of our Arsenal players would be the first to get a win on the board at the World Cup, so let’s see who gets the answer right.
In the same group as Uruguay, Nacho Monreal will be hoping to feature in Spain’s opening clash against Portugal tonight. Although Spain started off as one of the favourites for the competition, the sacking of their manager a couple of days ago means that anything could happen, especially as they are playing Cristiano Ronaldo who is in great form.
If that one goes wrong (I’m predicting a draw to be honest) then Alex Iwobi’s World Cup starts tomorrow as Nigeria take on Croatia in Group C at 8pm. I wouldn’t bet on that being an easy win for Iwobi personally, would you?
On Sunday lunchtime, if we have got that far, Joel Campbell will be representing Costa Rica in Group E against Serbia. Again I think a win there is also unlikely. Serbia may not be one of the biggest European teams but they have some great players compared to Nigeria.
So then we come to what I think is the banker Arsenal win as Mesut Ozil will be looking to retain the World Cup with Germany as they kick-off their campaign in Group F with a clash against Mexico. Surely that is a win?
Sunday night sees Granit Xhaka and Stephan Lichtsteiner lining up against Brazil. Now THAT would be a real shock if we came away with a win then…
If not we have (maybe) Danny Welbeck on Monday on the bench for England against Tunisia. That could be a win but I doubt very much if we will see Danny on the pitch….
After that the only one we have left is David Ospina, who will be between the sticks for Colombia in Group H, as they prepare to face Japan on Tuesday. Could we go through the whole of the first round of games without an Arsenal player on the winning side? Surely not!