Rival fans have raged after 11 of Mikel Arteta’s players withdrew from action with their countries before the season finale
W
ith the benefit of hindsight, Mikel Arteta’s response to a question before Arsenal’s victory over Everton last month about how the forthcoming international break might affect his squad was revealing. “We have really good communication with most of them,” Arteta replied when asked whether he was planning to speak to the various international managers that were expected to call up his players. “We’ll wait and see how everybody is and have those conversations and make the right decisions.”
Considering that Arsenal were still pursuing an unprecedented quadruple at the time, was this the most nervous he had ever felt going into an international break? “It’s a period that I don’t enjoy a lot,” admitted Arteta. “Especially when we have 18, 19 players playing. And especially with what happened in our recent history with very important players. But that is part of the calendar and we have to accept that.”
In the aftermath of Arsenal’s defeat to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, it didn’t take long for the withdrawals to begin. First William Saliba pulled out of France’s squad with a left ankle injury despite playing the whole game at Wembley and he was swiftly followed by Jurriën Timber, who has been struggling with a groin issue and wasn’t part of the matchday squad against City.
