Arsenal win international break: Gyokeres, MLS, ‘absolute livewire’ and Arteta’s “injured” stars

Mikel Arteta has been criticised by some but revered by many for what we all assume is some Sir Alex Ferguson-esque skullduggery during the international break in his bid to secure the Premier League title for Arsenal this season.

The Gunners are nine points clear at the top of the table with seven games to play but with Manchester City in second place with a game in hand and boosted through their victory over Arteta’s side in the Carabao Cup final, there have been widespread suggestions that not all nine players to have returned to London Colney for medical assessment are all that injured and are instead enjoying a bit of downtime before the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup run-ins.

Sir Alex infamously put pressure on his Manchester United players to withdraw from international games to preserve their fitness for Red Devils duty and Rio Ferdinand is among quite the group of former players to applaud Arteta’s supposed ultimatum, or as Mark Corrigan dubbed a “much more friendly” demand as he looked to kick Jeremy out of the flat, an “ultimatey”.

Ferdinand told his YouTube channel: “Mikel Arteta has worked his magic and told them if anyone plays or anyone goes you’re getting fined and they’ve all dropped out.

“They’ll all be available for selection, bar one or two.

“It’s definitely the manager saying listen this is the first win we could get in terms of the Premier League, we have to be ready, we need your energy, this is a friendly for your national team.

“I’ve heard this speech from Sir Alex Ferguson so I understand it. The guys have just gone this is our priority we need to win the league.”

Alan Shearer said it was “fine” and Joe Cole “understands” though he has sympathy for the England fans watching a “B team” at Wembley, and while it’s undoubtedly not in the spirit of the game, Arteta is taking a ‘needs must’ approach to winning trophies for Arsenal and if the players are on board with these slightly underhand tactics, why wouldn’t he employ them?

Gabriel Magalhaes, William Saliba, Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Piero Hincapie, Leandro Trossard and Martin Zubimendi all made premature returns to north London.

Coincidentally, Eight of them are in the top ten outfield players to have played the most minutes in all competitions for Arsenal this season. Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres make up the ten. Eze was already ruled out of international duty through injury while Gyokeres was required to score a hat-trick to see Sweden past Ukraine in the play-off semi-final and then the winner from the penalty spot to beat Poland to reach the World Cup.

Gyokeres would obviously have refused Arteta’s request for him to skip the Sweden games if his managed had deigned to make such a request, but the big striker was joined by Kai Havertz and Myles Lewis-Skelly in shining during the international break to further boost Arsenal having presumably been given the green light to play in less meaningful games by the Spaniard.

Havertz scored a penalty in Germany’s 2-1 win over Ghana and was described as “an absolute livewire” by the German press as “almost every attack went through him” while he delivered “clever passes into the centre”, intriguingly for Arteta amid issues for Arsenal this season in this role, from the right wing.

We would hazard a guess that a 4-1 England Under-21 win over Moldova won’t add all much weight to the ‘Free Lewis-Skelly’ campaign launched by Arsenal fans on social media on Tuesday after watching the full-back’s star showing in the victory. But there were some stunning touches and shows of class from the 19-year-old to suggest that he might be the proper “footballer” Arsenal need over Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori at some point in what remains of the season.

It’s a two-week period to aid a growing narrative of gamesmanship that has surrounded Arsenal this season but one that Arteta has played perfectly through stopping his tired stars from playing and granting others opportunities to find form for their countries amid a lack of game time at the Emirates.

They may still not claim the Premier League title, but Arteta and Arsenal have won the international break as they consider every available means to improve their chance of going all the way this term.