Morning all. I suspect there might be some sore heads around Ireland this morning after the extraordinary 3-2 win over Hungary yesterday. The hero was Troy Parrott, who scored a hat-trick, and an incredibly last gasp winner to send the boys in green through to a playoff for the World Cup next March. What a week it’s been for him. Two goals to beat Portugal on Thursday, then this. Amazing. What a week it’s been for Irish football too. Pulling off those results looked like a pretty tall order, but as Parrot said in his emotional post-match interview, “That’s why we love football, because things like this can happen.” And it’s true. Regular readers will know I’m not always wild about the international game, but it was impossible not to feel that moment. Not just the emotion of any winning goal at that stage of a game, but you knew it was something rare, something special. This has been doing the rounds, but the video of people watching in Dublin airport really catches the infectious vibe. Maybe as Arsenal fans we’ve experienced both sides of it. After Gabriel’s injury playing in a friendly for Brazil, you see questions about him, whether he needed to play in that game at all, and the need for fixtures like that in the first place. Then with this Ireland result you see the importance of it when it is competitive, when it means something, and how it impacts everyone who is connected with it, not least the players themselves. Whatever we, as fans of clubs, might think of internationals, there’s no question that for the players it’s something they love without question. It’s special to pull on the shirt of your country, and to represent the badge in that way. The friendlies might be an irritation, and believe me I feel that way often, but they are an intrinsic part of it all. For the managers, who can use those games to prepare their sides for more important games, and for the players who can enhance their chances of playing more, going to the big tournaments, and so on. It’s always massively frustrating when a player goes away with their country and picks up a knock, and I do think there are things that could be improved in the dialogue between clubs and international associations. The players themselves can play a part there. Maybe look at Riccardo Calafiori who went away with Italy but was obviously up front about whatever issue he’s been experiencing. He returned to London without playing, and the reporting is he should be ok for the weekend. There certainly have been instances when players will push themselves to turn out for their country when they probably shouldn’t, and international managers who ignore medical info from clubs because of the importance of a particular player ahead of a must-win fixture. The other thing to say is that for a club like Arsenal right now, there’s a direct correlation between the quality of our team and the number of first-choice internationals in it. There was a time not too long ago when only a select few were missing during the Interlulls, and that also coincided with a very mid-table experience for us as fans. As annoying as it might be to lose Gabriel, and it really is, the reality is that when you’re one of the best teams in England, and maybe Europe, pretty much all of your players are going to be internationals. That is something Mikel Arteta understands well, and it’s also part of why we’ve built this big squad. I hope Big Gabi won’t be out too long, he definitely looked uncomfortable post-game, but we have players who can fill the gap. In the absence of Martin Odegaard we’ve had Eberechi Eze; when Bukayo Saka was out we had Noni Madueke; the manager will Calafiori, Piero Hincapie, or Cristhian Mosquera (who I wrote about yesterday), at his disposal. It’s bad to lose to Gabriel, no doubt about it, but it could be a lot worse. Let’s see what the week brings in terms of news on him. Elsewhere, it looks as if our England contingent made it through yesterday’s 2-0 win over Albania without incident, so that’s good. William Saliba didn’t play for France yesterday either, so he should return to London Colney in good shape. Today, Jurrien Timbers’ Netherlands are in action against Lithuania, and that’s all the Arsenal involvement until tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Right, I’ll leave it there this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later on, we’re recording around 10.30am. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. The pod should be out around noon. For now, have a good one. The post The highs and lows of the international game appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.