As is normal with international breaks, players return home and speak to their local media, that combined with journalists having little else to talk about ensures that stories of players’ happiness are bound to emerge.
Tomas Rosicky has stated that he “doesn’t know what’s going on” in terms of his lack of playing time. The 34 year old claims that he is still in the top 5 in terms of quickest Arsenal players. Understandable for the Czech Republic captain to air some frustration after being a key part of Arsenal’s successful period last season.
Aaron Ramsey has admitted that he isn’t fully fit yet, and thinks that some of the criticism of him is unfair. While he hasn’t been terrible, the Welshman is a long way from his peaks of last season.
Lukas Podolski has said that while he is happy with life at the Emirates, he wants to play. Various reports were linking him to German clubs Schalke and his former club Koln, but both of these clubs have denied any interest in the player. A 29 year old World Cup winner with 121 caps isn’t completely happy that he has started exactly 0 league games this season. Shocker.
Mesut Ozil has been in the papers quite a lot recently, despite his continued injury. An ongoing lawcase between him and his father has caused Madrid based newspaper Marca to speculate that Ozil did not want to leave Madrid and his father forced him to join Arsenal for the money. Speculate being the operative word. Ozil has responded by saying that he is confident that Wenger has his complete trust to make him be the best player he can be.
Joel Campbell has spoken of his calmness in the situation he finds himself in, denying speculation that he has been “furious”. He proceeds to talk about the patience and hard work that is needed from him to break into the first team.
Wojciech Szczęsny has got people talking about him playing FIFA 15, which is pretty much the most interesting thing to come out of this week in terms of reliable news.
Games
Turns out the international break isn’t exclusively about tenuous transfer stories, there were actually some international games thrown in between the interviews.
Goal scorers
Alex Oxlade Chamberlain came off the bench for a cameo against Slovenia, and put in a solid 80 minutes against Scotland, with a deft header to give England the lead. He didn’t start the season amazingly, but his performances over the last month or so show benefitting from first team football.
Danny Welbeck continued his fine England form with a crucial brace against Slovenia. While his first goal might not have been, shall we say, glamorous, his second the culmination of some brilliant link up play between Gibbs, Sterling & Welbeck. Against Scotland, he worked tirelessly for 66 minutes before being taken off for Sterling.
Carl Jenkinson got a himself on the scoresheet as England Under 21s beat Portugal 3-1. Then was on the losing side as Yaya Sanogo’s brace helped ensure that his France Under 21 team won that fixture 3-2.
Alexis Sanchez finally started pulling his weight, with two headed goals as Chile lost to Uruguay and beat Venezuela
Yaya Sanogo’s brace against England ensured that his side won the game 3-2, ending a run of 11 games unbeaten for the three lions. While neither were screamers, it is good to see that Sanogo knows where the goal is.
Assist Makers
Jack Wilshere picked up two man of the match performances playing as a deep lying midfielder. This now makes his tally 4 England games in a row where he has been man of the match playing in this position. While the opposition wasn’t of the highest class, you can only beat the team that you are up against, and he did a brilliant job in both games. While he is unlikely to feature as a holding midfielder in the more physical Premier League, the confidence he has picked up can only be a good thing for club and country. A sublime assist for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain against Scotland.
Joel Campbell registered an assist against Uruguay in a game that Costa Rica went on to win on penalties
Lukas Podolski assisted Muller as Germany beat Gibraltar, before being an unused substitute against Spain.
Others
Kieran Gibbs earned his 5th and 6th caps this week, putting in a solid, but unremarkable, 90 minutes against Slovenia, before coming on for Shaw in the 66th minute against Scotland.
Calum Chambers was in the England squad, but much as he did at Southampton, Nathaniel Clyne kept the 19 year old out of the team for both matches
Theo Walcott was another former Southampton Gunner who did not feature for England, despite being in the squad for both games.
Wojciech Szczęsny got a clean sheet for Poland, as they beat Georgia 4-0 away from home
Aaron Ramsey got criticised in his performance in Wales mind numbingly dull hard fought 0-0 draw against Belgium.
Tomas Rosicky featured as Czech Republic beat Iceland.
Santi Cazorla played for 69 minutes as Spain thrashed Honduras, before being an unused substitute as Spain lost to Germany.
