Arsenal Opinion

The curse of the international break has struck again, bringing with it familiar questions over the value of such fixtures to players and fans alike. While the call to represent one’s country brings out patriotism and a desire to prove their world beating credentials from many professional footballers, there is a perception that impact on clubs and fans is altogether less positive.

World Cup qualifiers are bad enough (with nine of our players involved), but worse still are friendlies. With Robin Van Persie the latest critical player to suffer a longterm injury during a non-competitive international, many fans will follow tomorrow night’s action with significant concern over the welfare of Fabregas, Eduardo and Vermaelen, wincing with every slide tackle and all but forgetting the entertainment on offer. In such circumstances, Arsene Wenger is entitled to question whether these matches merely represent a pointless risk to first team players. He will not be the first domestic manager to note that clubs pay the players’ wages, and should therefore be entitled to a greater degree of control over the selection and minutes played by their “assets”.

Beyond the injury dangers of these extra fixtures, the manager can also lament a break in momentum when domestically, we’ve been in effervescent form. Rather than building on this confidence, the break sets the risk of disrupting the team’s progress, with the players returning to action not buoyed from the collective memory of the team’s demolition of Wolves, but forced to reignite the dressing room atmosphere. A task made difficult by the absence of our leading Premiership scorer. We can only hope our superb performances are resumed without too great a readjustment period.

In other sports news, get some early tips on the Grand National betting odds for 2010.