The international break is finally over and club football is set to return this weekend as Arsenal take on Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby.
It’s been a mixed couple of weeks from an Arsenal perspective who saw their England players in particular grapple with Gareth Southgate ‘s controversial decisions. Ben White was left out of the squad all together, while Aaron Ramsdale was included but strangely failed to play a minute and Bukayo Saka started the Nations League match against Italy at left wing back before enjoying an impressive cameo in his preferred right wing position against Germany.
Elsewhere Martin Odegaard returned from a calf injury that kept him out of the win over Brentford to play in both matches for Norway but there are fitness concerns over some of the other members of the squad. Kieran Tireney, Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu all left international duty early, while Oleksandr Zinchenko was not fit enough to travel away in the first place. All four players’ fitness issues were spoken about in football.london ‘s new The Arsenal Way podcast.
In the show Arsenal writers Kaya Kaynak and Bailey Keogh also discussed how an injury to Spurs’ winger Dejan Kulusevski might affect Mikel Arteta ‘s selection for the big match as well as how William Saliba and Gabriel Jesus might get on in their first North London Derbies.
You can find the latest episode of the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Spreaker by clicking on the links.
