The Gunners are bringing England back, and back with a bang!

Apologies, it’s been about 10 days since my last post, guess I was still annoyed with the result against Swansea.

Anyways, international week has just been which means its time for one of my traditional England-Arsenal related posts. Much like the last international week, this post is heavily focused on the impact our players have had on the England side.

It’s taken a few months for England to win back the support of the fans since we were humiliated in Brazil. However, now it seems evident that the fans are back on side with the players and I don’t think many can argue against that this is mainly down to the Gunners.

Oxlaide-Chamberlain, Welbeck, Wilshere, Gibbs, Chambers and Theo Walcott were all called up for England’s first team this weekend. When was the last time Arsenal had six players called up for the England squad? When you think about it, it’s going back a long time. In the build up to the 2010 World Cup, our only hope was Theo Walcott and even then he was controversially left out of the final squad to go to South Africa.

Roy Hodgson clearly sees a lot of potential in all the Arsenal players to do well for England, and they’ve only gone and made that faith stronger with their recent performances.

I was there against Slovenia on Saturday and I thought Jack Wilshere was the main key to England’s win. He had a fantastic game, arguably his best in an England shirt after completing the match with a 94% pass success rate. He continued that fine form on Tuesday in Scotland with a wonderful ball to Oxlaide-Chamberlain, who finished with his head to score England’s first.

But Jack’s not the only man doing the job, as many people will have noticed Danny Welbeck is on fire for England. He may have only scored a couple for Arsenal so far, but for England he can’t stop scoring and he’s really cementing his place in that starting line-up, he’s fully taking advantage of the Daniel Sturridge situation. It’s not just goals though, nobody can say he’s not working hard for England; nobody can doubt the lad’s work rate at all. For both club and country he gives everything. I just hope that knock he got against Scotland isn’t too bad because there’s no way he shouldn’t start against Man Utd this weekend – HE HAS TO START.

I also just mentioned Oxlaide-Chamberlain’s goal against Scotland. It was really well deserved and a beautiful goal created by him and Wilshere – not just the ball, but also the vision and the way they both just knew where to go and what to do. But I can’t emphasise more how much he deserved it. We saw it against Anderlecht, we saw it against Swansea; The Ox has been taking notes from Sanchez’s book. He’s always had a decent work rate but Alex has notched it up a few levels recently. If more Arsenal players start doing the same then we’ll be alright!

When talking about Arsenal players everyone seems to forget about Keiran Gibbs. For a long time, Gibbs wasn’t really considered for England, but this season he’s really begun to prove people wrong about the type of player he is. Now that he’s sorted his fitness out, everyone in football is taking notice of how good he is not just at the back, but also moving forward. It was great to see him do for England exactly what he’s been doing for Arsenal recently when he got an assist against Slovenia. Leighton Baines is definitely looking over his shoulder in concern.

With Theo Walcott coming back in and Calum Chambers making a name for himself as well, it’s possible we might just be seeing all six of the lads starting for England. For those who dislike Arsenal that sounds like a cause for concern, but when you really think about it, it can only do a world of good for both England and Arsenal.

One of the biggest concerns for England fans over the last decade has been a lack of chemistry in the team; by having one club as the centre of the national side, chemistry would no longer be a problem. I wrote about this a few weeks ago – look at Germany and Spain; both have only one or two clubs as a base for the national side, e.g. Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Is that not a clue to how they’ve done so well in recent competitions? Surely it’s a part to their success in some form.

It doesn’t have to be Arsenal, it can be any side; but look at Arsenal’s England players and try and tell me there’s another club in the Premier League with an equal amount of young talent – there isn’t. Liverpool come close, and obviously Man Utd and Chelsea have their quality players, but Arsenal have the best group of very young and very enthusiastic England players. They’re still learning and they’ll only get better.

Could Arsenal be the key to England success?

Spain have Barcelona/Real Madrid, Germany have Bayern Munich, could Arsenal be the team for England?

Last night, 5 Arsenal players were on the pitch for England for the first time since 1936. Wind the clock back almost 10 years and that sounds almost impossible.

Arsenal have gone from being the first English side to field a foreign 11 to being the England squad’s main core .

The Ox has become a regular in the England side

Welbeck, Chambers, Wilshere and Oxlaide-Chamberlain all returned for Three Lions’ duty, and Keiran Gibbs earned his first call-up in almost 4 years. If Theo Walcott had been fit he probably would have got a call up too!

It’s brilliant, although sometimes nail-biting, for us English Arsenal fans. In terms of chemistry and performance, it can only do a world of good for Arsenal; however, it does pose as a threat on the injury front, which is quite common for Gunners on international duty.

I’m sure I’m not the only Gooner that hides behind the sofa when one of the Arsenal boys goes down in an England game. I know to some people that sounds bad, believe me I’m always happy for our boys to play for their national sides, but you just hope they do without getting put on the sidelines for three months.

Watching the last few England games, with the core of Arsenal players involved in defence, midfield and upfront, has made me pretty confident that our chemistry and bond can bring England success in the future. It’s not like 2010, 2012 and earlier this year, where the squad was really mixed and couldn’t find a balance.

We saw it against San Marino, when Oxlaide-Chamberlain came on and made an instant impact, and eventually assisted Danny Welbeck’s goal.

I felt so bad when the Ox got injured before the World Cup, I really do think England would have done much better with him in the side. He makes an impact when he starts and when he comes off the bench, he takes the ball and runs at the opposition. He would have brought the best out of Wilshere, Sterling and Sturridge.

Also, ever since signing for Arsenal, Danny Welbeck has been brilliant in front of goal. In his last 8 games for club and country, Welbeck has scored 7 goals and made 2 assists. He’s playing in his favourite position and linking up with his club teammates.

Jack Wilshere got MOTM against San Marino

But it’s not just when they’re together that the Gunners play well; we’ve seen them all link up pretty well with players from other clubs in the last three matches too.

Jack Wilshere had his best game in an England shirt for a long time against San Marino; he linked up brilliantly with everyone in the team, almost as if he could read their minds, and made 5 key passes, including arguably the best of the match.

They’re a popular bunch of lads the Arsenal lot, it’s clear on the pitch (as well as social media) and that’s always great for team chemistry. Now that most of them have an FA Cup win to their record, maybe, just maybe, they can bring a tournament winning mentality into the England side.

Giroud’s injury leaves us with striker problems

Arsenal will have to wait until tomorrow to receive the results of Olivier Giroud’s second ankle scan. There are fears that the 27-year-old Frenchman’s ankle may be broken, and although it is certain that he will miss tomorrow’s Champions League play-off against Besiktas, it is very likely that he could be out for three months.

Giroud could be out for up to three months

Last night the news spread like wildfire through us Gooners, and understandably the demand for Wenger to sign a new striker got heavy. 

Giroud’s absence leaves us with Alexis Sanchez, Joel Campbell, Yaya Sanogo and Lukas Podolski as Wenger’s remaining attacking options. Although on paper this list doesn’t look like such a bad thing, in reality it is actually very alarming.

We saw Alexis put up front as a lone striker for the first time against Everton at the weekend, and I think we can all agree that what we saw wasn’t exactly promising. It’s clear that he still needs time to adapt to the Premier League and that he’s not effective as a lone striker against teams playing a deep defence. It’s arguable that with his pace, and our midfields ability to get the ball behind their back line, Alexis would be a lot better against a team with a high line. Sadly, most teams know they can’t play this style of football against us. It’s probably best to keep Alexis out on the wings for now.

I’m not really sure what to say about Joel Campbell, we haven’t really seen enough of him in an Arsenal shirt. We saw a lot of promising stuff from him in the World Cup this summer and he recently said he’s prepared to show his worth at Arsenal. He’s definitely an option, but I don’t think he’s our first choice, and he’s certainly not enough to convince me that we don’t need a new striker.

Lukas Podolski is back and fit, and thankfully today Wenger ruled out a departure for Podolski. I think that Podolski’s our best finisher; others may disagree but that is my opinion. He’s definitely got experience playing up front and we know goals are almost certain when he’s on the pitch, but is he a lone striker? Can he play as a forward in the way that Giroud does for us? I don’t think so, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’ve always seen Podolski as more of a second striker – so if you played two up front, for me Podolski would always be a little behind Giroud/Sanogo and then dart forward whenever they held up the ball.

Sanogo could be our best option

So why not Yaya Sanogo? On the one hand, he’s got a similar style to Giroud and can get into awkward positions which causes a lot of trouble for other teams. But on the other, he’s simply off form. He may have scored four in the Emirates Cup, but he’s yet to score for Arsenal in a competitive game. He’s shown moments of brilliance, and can clearly hold up the ball, but until he scores for us competitively I wont be convinced. However, because he’s similar to Giroud I think he’s the best option we’ve got at the moment (Once he’s fit that is). Hopefully the experience will help him find his form, and I’m sure Wenger will tell him to do what Giroud does; hold up the ball and play it out wide, give Ramsey that free role to run forward, be an aerial threat and give attacking support in the box. 

I’m sure some people have read this and thought ‘well he’s forgotten Theo Walcott’ – I haven’t, but does anyone actually know when Walcott is meant to be back for us? He was on goal scoring form before he got injured against Tottenham last year. As soon as Theo’s back it will be great because we’ll have plenty of options in attack. Other teams wont be able to deal with our pace; Theo will stretch teams and will frighten their defenders. But is he as effective against a deep line? Not really, because once again we’ve got the same problem as we do with Sanchez – there’s just not enough space between the back line and the goal for them to show their pace.

This is why we need Giroud, it gives us multiple options, and a plan B if we need one. Yeah, Sanogo is a similar player, but he’s not on the same level as Giroud yet – Sanogo isn’t capable of inspiring a comeback from 2-0 down is he?

We desperately need a striker if Giroud’s out for three months; Wenger is risking our whole season if he doesn’t go out and sign one before the end of the transfer window. I’d personally go in for Loic Remy – I thought it was Liverpool’s loss when they backed out of the transfer during the medical. Everyone knows that Remy has a heart condition, but has that stopped him from performing before? No!

If you can name any other strikers you think would fit in well with our style of play then please let me know! I’d love to hear if you disagree too – just comment below!