Arsenal international round-up as Kai Havertz embarrassed by team-mate

Aaron Ramsdale left sweating over Arsenal future as Mikel Arteta turns to David Raya

Mikel Arteta will be welcoming Arsenal’s biggest stars back to London Colney this week after featuring in the latest round of international fixtures. A large number of the Gunners’ senior players were picked to represent their countries, with some performing well and others falling short ahead of this weekend’s return of Premier League football.

Arsenal were given a slight injury scare over the weekend when Gabriel Magalhaes picked up a knock while making his Brazil debut against Bolivia. However, he returned to the line-up for Tuesday’s win over Peru and played the entire 90 minutes, which suggests that he will be fit and ready to play for Arsenal when they face Everton on Sunday.

Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli also featured for Brazil against Peru, with both players coming off the bench in the second half of the match. The only goal of the game was scored by Marquinhos in the dying seconds to hand Brazil a narrow victory on their World Cup qualifying journey.

Arsenal’s contingent of England players also celebrated a win on Tuesday night as the Three Lions outclassed Scotland in a friendly at Hampden Park. Aaron Ramsdale was given the nod to start in goal over Jordan Pickford, who featured against Ukraine on the weekend, while Declan Rice played both games in the middle of the park.

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Bukayo Saka was also introduced as a second-half substitute against Scotland with 19 minutes remaining, while Eddie Nketiah was named on the bench but did not get the chance to make his international debut in either fixture.

Oleksandr Zinchenko was on hand to hurt England while playing for Ukraine, with the Arsenal man scoring his ninth goal for his country to rescue a point. He went on to feature in central midfield in a narrow defeat to Italy, although he was substituted with 15 minutes remaining at the San Siro.

David Raya found himself in the same boat as Nketiah as he watched Spain batter Georgia and Cyprus from the bench, with Unai Simon being preferred to start between the sticks. Kai Havertz, meanwhile, was left embarrassed as Germany were thrashed by Japan on home soil before redeeming themselves by scraping past France on Tuesday.

Havertz was unable to prevent the four-time World Cup winners from falling to a 4-1 defeat against Japan, a game which sealed the fate of Hansi Flick before he was sacked the following day. Takehiro Tomiyasu managed to upstage his Arsenal team-mate by picking up the man of the match award before featuring in another impressive win for Japan over Turkey three days later.

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Elsewhere in Europe, William Saliba was selected to start for France against Germany after coming off the bench against Ireland over the weekend. He looks set to play a crucial role for Les Bleus at the Euros next summer if he keeps impressing, with the 22-year-old having emerged as one of the Premier League’s finest defenders over the last two years.

Leandro Trossard was another one to catch the eye as he performed well in an advanced role for Belgium against Poland, while he managed to get on the scoresheet against Estonia on Tuesday. Jakub Kiwior, meanwhile, was left to rue a VAR intervention when he saw a goal ruled out during Poland’s defeat to Albania.

Last but not least, Martin Odegaard played 62 minutes of Norway’s win over Jordan before finding the back of the net as they followed up by beating Georgia. Erling Haaland was the other scorer on Tuesday night as he and Odegaard linked up to claim two wins from as many international matches.

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