Arsenal: World Cup absentees tells of concerning story

Arsenal only have seven players at this summer’s World Cup. The mire of absentees tells of a concerning story: this is a squad that no longer of the top-tier quality.

The World Cup is on our doorstep. That, for me, is a sentence of utter joy, adulation, trepidation, nervousness and excitement in the unknown. I love the World Cup. The unpredictability of it. The mistakes, the agony, the ecstasy, the winning, the losing, the penalties, the pain. All of it.

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And of the things that I love to do during a World Cup is watch all of the Arsenal players involved play in a context that I rarely get to see them play in — it is not all that often that you get to watch Mesut Ozil play for Germany, for instance.

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However, this year, the Gunners are only sending seven players to the competition: Mesut Ozil; David Ospina, Alex Iwobi, Nacho Monreal, Mohamed Elneny, Danny Welbeck and Granit Xhaka. Of those seven, only two were clear starters under Arsene Wenger last season when he had a full complement of options, Ozil and Xhaka.

So, nine of 11 starters for Arsenal will not be at the World Cup this summer. Now, that is a slightly contorted stat. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang plays for Gabon; Henrikh Mkhitaryan plays for Armenia; Aaron Ramsey plays for Wales; Petr Cech has retired from international duty. It would have been a surprise if any of those four would have been playing at this summer’s World Cup because of the relative strength of their national teams.

That said, Manchester City are sending 17 players to the World Cup, Manchester United are sending 11, Spurs are sending 12. There is quite a gap between these side’s contingent and their north London rivals’ contingent.

Moreover, City have actually broken the record for the number of players sent to one World Cup. That record, which would have been broken by Real Madrid’s 16 this summer also had City not bettered them, was set by Arsenal in 2006, with 15. It says a lot, then, that this year the number is less than half.

Now, there were some harsh decisions. Jack Wilshere, Hector Bellerin, Alexandre Lacazette. They can all feel aggrieved that they are not on their respective planes and perhaps under another manager, they would have been. But their absence tells a concerning story: This squad is simply not that good anymore.

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Put simply, the Gunners do not have the same quality of player that they had even four or five years ago. Their paltry supply to the World Cup is simply a symptom of that. If you hadn’t realised already, you should now. This squad is in dire need of some investment.