So we’re on Matchday 3 of Euro 2012 and already we’ve seen a few Arsenal players play for their countries.
On Friday, we had Wojciech Szczesny in goal for Poland, who drew with Greece. Poland seemed to be in complete control for the first hour but then Greece, who had a man ridiculously sent off for two yellow cards that weren’t even fouls, started believing and scored a deserved equaliser.
Unfortunately, Szczesny made a blunder from the cross and allowed Salpingidis to tap in from close range.
And to make things even worse, Arsenal’s number 1 conceded a penalty and got sent off in the process, meaning he will miss the next group game against Russia.
Later that night, it was the turn of Russia against the Czech Republic, made interesting as both international captains were Arsenal players, Andrei Arshavin and Tomas Rosicky. Russia put on a fine display and frustratingly, Arshavin was in inspirational form.
He was involved in everything and you just wondered how things could have been if Arshavin was played in his natural position. The same could be said about Rosicky, who also plays a more central role for the Czech Republic.
Could Arshavin return from his loan spell and become “like a new signing” next season?
We can all hope, but I think we know that a return to Russia permanently is the most likely outcome.
Another Arsenal loanee played yesterday, as Nicklas Bendtner turned out for Denmark as the pulled off a shock result against Holland. He was his usual self but his record of 6 goals in his last 9 international games is impressive. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a good tournament as well.
And on the flip side, Arsenal saviour and player of the year Robin van Persie had an absolute nightmare.
Nothing was going right for him at all – his touch was woeful, his timing was well off and he could have been there all night and not scored. The incident that summed up his performance was when he was through on goal and instead of unleashing a shot he completely missed the ball and fell awkwardly like Bambi on ice.
It was not comfortable to see but on the plus side, performances like that can only increase his chances of staying with Arsenal…
It was indeed frustrating to see “Can’t be Arsed-havin” playing something like the way he did when he first arrived at Arsenal in 2009 & it’s probably the combination of a lack of professionalism on his part to consistently put in a shift (typical amongst most Russian players who join Western European clubs and often after a promising start fade) & a past his best “coach” who certainly cannot motivate some players and organise his tactics to accomodate mercurial talents unless they happen to be French or Francophone African.
Is Sczesney the new Alex Manninger???-Friday reminded me of the sort of performances that ended his Arsenal career. He badly needs a calm, wise head and goalkeeping coach to bring him down to earth-David Seaman anyone?? Perhaps they could do some fishing together..