Arsenal: 5 standout moments from international break

And breathe. Whether you’re one who enjoys the flurry of international fixtures or not, it’s an agreeable point that going this long without watching Arsenal is anything but fun.

16 days will separate their matches between Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, with Monday’s clash at Selhurst Park the last on the fixture list for matchday 31. That means more catching up to do, again, in the quest for top four.

Having been a side with but three players involved in the European Championships, Arsenal are now home to many more senior internationals from all over the world. Four Englishman were called up to the squad, while there were representatives from South America, Africa and, under normal circumstances, Asia too.

The final block of friendlies and World Cup qualifiers before the end of the season is now all-but complete. It’s full steam ahead on the Premier League, with ten juicy encounters for Arsenal to get their teeth sunk into.

Arsenal: 5 standout moments from international break as Tierney, Martinelli, Saliba, Pepe, Partey & more have fruitful spells with their countries

Many of the players did get to enjoy themselves over this break, however. Mikel Arteta has plenty of first team stars in action and there were a host of standout moments to enjoy from an Arsenal perspective.

For once, it was actually a relatively enjoyable international break.

Here are top five moments from across a range of fixtures.

William Saliba & Gabriel Martinelli International Debuts

Arsenal had three players aged 20 or younger who were called up to their senior squads during this break.

(Saliba turned 21 just after his call-up so it sort of counts)

And not just three squads, either. This was England, Brazil, and France. Really, who exciting is that? Three powerhouses on the international stage and Arsenal have three kids playing for their them.

An injury to Benjamin Pavard saw William Saliba earn his first international recognition, while Gabriel Martinelli was called up on account of him being absolutely magnificent over the past few months. Bukayo Saka, meanwhile, is a regular now.

But these weren’t just call-ups, as Saliba did come on with 32 minutes to go in France’s 2-1 win over Ivory Coast and then followed that up with the full 90 minutes in a thumping 5-0 win over South Africa. His country didn’t concede a goal with him on the pitch.

Arsenal’s young Brazilian got his first taste of senior action (aside from the Olympics) when he came on for 15 minutes of his nation’s 4-0 win World Cup qualifying win over Chile. That was followed up with another 4-0 win, this time over Bolivia, where Martinelli got a longer run-out of 35 minutes.

He nearly scored THIS goal. Unlucky, Gabi.

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Thomas Partey Fires Ghana Into World Cup

Having to make their way into the World Cup finals via the play-off system after finishing top of their qualifying group, Ghana tried to pull out all the tricks to unsettle Nigeria in their two-legged shootout.

Deliberately giving the travelling party a shorter stairwell when fthey exited their plane – forcing them to effectively climb out of the aircraft – and providing their team news at the very last second was just two of their tactics aimed to give them an edge in the first leg. It didn’t work, with a 0-0 stalemate following.

With away goals counting, a score draw would be enough for the Black Stars to progress to Qatar at the Abuja National Stadium in the second leg… so up stepped Thomas Partey.

Taking a shot from outside the box, what should have been a comfortable save was embarrassingly allowed to squirm through Francis Uzoho in the tenth minute. Nigeria hit back with a penalty on 22 minutes, but Ghana held firm to book their place in the 2022 World Cup.

While there will be some concern about having a key player set to feature over the winter, anyone who has watched Ghana won’t be overly worried about Partey playing too many games. They’re very, very poor.

Still, it’s a lovely moment for him and gives him something to build up for across the year. And, a special mention for Takehiro Tomiyasu’s Japan too, who booked their place as well.

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Kieran Tierney Scores His First Scotland Goal

This break was supposed to be one of immense pressure and excitement for Scotland. Booking their place in the World Cup play-offs, they were drawn to face Ukraine in the semi-final stage before Russia’s disgraceful invasion happened, with a decision yet to be made on when that tie will take place.

Instead, Steve Clarke’s men set up two friendly ties, at home to Poland and away to Austria.

Scotland, who use Kieran Tierney on the left of a back three with Andrew Robertson at left wing-back, were dominant over their Polish counterparts but had to wait until the 68th minute to get their noses in front, in what was a landmark moment for the Gunners defender.

John McGinn’s delightful inswinging free-kick was beautifully weighted for Tierney to caress a header beyond the despairing dive of Łukasz Skorupski. It was his first goal for Scotland, as well as a strange one to see from an Arsenal perspective, since Tierney is never in the box for dead balls.

Maybe he should be?

As if that goal wasn’t enough, he returned the favour to McGinn in their following 2-2 draw away at Austria as his neat cutback was met with aplomb by the Villa midfielder.

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Folarin Balogun Scores Three Times for England Under-21

While Folarin Balogun’s loan spell at Middlesbrough hasn’t been raining the goals he usually grabs for the Arsenal Under-23 side, it’s still been a important and effective time on Teeside for him.

He’s getting regular minutes and is improving across all facets, that which he’s appeared to carry over into Under-21 duty where he scored three goals for Lee Carsley’s side across their two 2023 European Under-21 Championship qualifying matches.

Hosting Andorra at the Vitality Stadium first off, Balogun opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a smartly taken near post finish after Tino Livramento found his neat run into that area. England ran out 4-1 winners to keep their unbeaten run in qualifying going.

That was followed up with another excellent win, with Balogun this time netting twice as the Three Lions brushed aside Albania 3-0 away from home.

The first was another clever finish with the outside of his right foot having beaten the offside trap, with his second involving a clever twisted run before firing low past the goalkeeper.

At the rate he’s going, Eddie Nketiah’s Under-21 goalscoring record may be under threat…. Well, probably not, but he’s being prolific.

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Nicolas Pepe’s Pearler & Martin Odegaard’s Magic

When you watch players week-in and week-out frustrate you in an Arsenal shirt, the only thing more annoying is when they produce something special somewhere else. Nicolas Pepe’s goal against France was one such instance.

Fed with a pass in between the full-back and centre-back around 30 yards from goal, he produced a couple of his trademark step overs to spin a combination of Lucas and Theo Hernandez inside out. It was movement that moved him onto his right foot, and then from an extremely tight angle he rifled an effort past Hugo Lloris.

The whole passage was very un-Pepe like. A lovely goal, nonetheless.

As for Martin Odegaard, he netted his own delightful goal over the international break with delicious bending effort into the far top corner, while he generally turned on the creative style as Norway beat Slovakia 2-0 and then obliterated Armenia 9-0.

While they weren’t the most taxing games in terms of the opposition, Odegaard sparkled and also managed to convince Erling Haaland to move to north London when he leaves Borussia Dortmund in the summer.

That last part is definitely true. 100%.