Following on from our recent blog post These Arsenal Players Are Representing Their Country This Summer we have taken a closer look at “How will Arsenal cope with the start of the season coming straight after the Euros?”

Arsenal have three players in the Copa America this summer (Ospina, Alexis, Campbell who finished early) and eight in the Euro 2016 tournament (Koscielny, Giroud, Wilshere, Granit, Ramsey, Ozil, Cech and Bellerin). Talksport gave us one more in Rosicky, but I thought he had left us. Maybe they know something I don’t.

So that is eleven players out with the international brigades. The Copa America group shouldn’t worry us too much, as the tournament ends on 26 June, so even if any of our players get to the final, they can then have their month’s holiday and be ready to play on 13 August (unless they get seriously injured of course).

The Euros are more of a problem for Arsenal however because not only do we have six players there, that tournament doesn’t finish until 10 July, which means if we have any players who play in the final they won’t be fit for the league until the last week of August. The league programme starts on 13 August.

Life will of course be a lot easier if our players’ countries get knocked out by the quarter finals on 30 June. They should at least be available on the bench for the season starter.

Also there are signs that the squad is growing, and it may well be that even with one or two players who won’t be obvious first choices, the team will not be weakened too much.

However we are not the worst off in terms of the Euro campaign. Liverpool (always prone to excess) have 12 players in Europe, Tottenham have 11, and Manchester United have 10. Southampton and Manchester City have seven each, and Chelsea have somehow managed onto to have six, perhaps reflective of their reduced reputation following the past season.

And there is a little relief in the fact that our eight players come from seven countries, which means some of them will be back in time for the opening of the season.

Which then also means that the only thing we really have left to worry about is the issue of players getting injured.

The good news is that in goal, even if Cech reaches the final, Ospina should be back and ready to play the first game. Our worst case scenario would be Cech in the final and Ospina injured, but then maybe we’d call Szczesny back from loan or we’d use Emiliano Martinez.

All full back we have got cover with Gibbs, and with Monreal not playing we should be ok. Debuchy could still be with us, plus Chambers, and there is also Carl Jenkinson back from West Ham and possibly fit.

At the centre of defence neither Gabriel nor Mertesacker are away, and again there is Chambers as an option.

In midfield, Santi Cazorla is having a proper break, as are Coquelin and Elneny so again we have a range of choices there.

The attacking midfield and centre forward positions however gives us more of a problem for as things stand, but even so we should have Oxlade Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi who are not playing this summer, plus Alexis Sanchez and Joel Campbell back from South America.

That just about gives us a team although at this stage the bench is looking a bit sparse.

However as always we don’t really know who might be ready to break through from the loanees and youth teams. Serge Gnabry played superbly for the first XI before his injury and then loan to West Brom, and he is still shown on the Arsenal site as a first team attacking player (although he dropped out of the under 21s final game at the last moment at the end of the season).

Isaac Hayden is also thought to have had a good spell at Hull on loan with Chuba Akpom. But the star of the loanees last season must be Jon Toral who playing as an attacking midfielder won goal of the season, Players’ Player of the Season and Supporters’ Player of the Season.

We have also seen Jeff Reine Adelaide retained at Arsenal (rather than going on loan) just as Alex Iwobi has been, and it could well be that he might now be thought ready to play at part in the side.

But it must be remembered we are very much looking at a worst case scenario in going through the loanees and under 21s to put a team together. We most certainly should be able to start with season with

—————-Ospina——————–
Debuchy Gabriel Mertesacker Monreal
——–Santi Cazorla–Coquelin———
—Alexis Iwobi–Oxlade-Chamberlain–
—————-Walcott———————

Not our first choice XI of course but we have to remember that the other leading teams in the league will also be suffering from the same problems of players in South America and the Euros.

And as I say, they are not all going to come back injured or having been playing right up to the final.