Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale have been selected by England for upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia, however, Eddie Nketiah has missed out.
It’s unclear whether Nketiah’s absence is related to the knock picked up at Newcastle last weekend or whether Southgate doesn’t fancy him after two consecutive call-ups. Either way, he’ll likely be disappointed having made his international debut against Australia in October.
Last night, Mikel Arteta said that Nketiah and Martin Odegaard, who also missed the 2-0 win over Sevilla, “are racing against the clock to be fit” for Saturday’s match against Burnley. It’s only a hunch but we suspect both will be absent.
Your #ThreeLions for their final camp of 2023! 💪
— England (@England) November 9, 2023
Given Gabriel Jesus is also injured, Arteta is having to lean on Leandro Trossard’s versatility. The Belgium international scored his fifth goal of the season on Wednesday and says he’s happy to fill in wherever necessary.
Asked about the demands of switching roles, he told the Press Association: “I always need to be switched on to be honest. I always need to know my role. But I like it.
“I will never back down from anything. If you put me as a striker, or a winger or a number 10, I will always play my game I think.
“Arteta knows I like to swap positions as well during the game. We have those types of players as well, and it creates a bit of chaos for the opposition team. I like it. I am really happy.”
Arteta faces the media tomorrow at 1.30pm when he’ll also be pressed on the availability of Saka who limped off in the closing stages of the Sevilla game with a knock to his ankle.
Update
It does sound like injury is the main reason for Nketiah’s absence from the England squad. Amongst other things, Southgate said this afternoon: “Eddie’s progressing really well as a young player and we’ve enjoyed working with him. We wanted to include him as a young player to have a look at. He’s an excellent finisher.”
To be fair to Eddie most of the time he is not good enough for Arsenal much less the national team.
For the record – I think you can easily be not good enough for Arsenal but good enough for England.
And my evidence? Harry Maguire, Jordan Henderson, Jordan Pickford, Sam Johnstone, Lewis Dunk, Fikayo Tomori, Kalvin Phillips and Callum Wilson.
That is very true.
Its whether you fit the profile of the tediously boring Gareth Southgate.
Gone are the days when you earned your cap.
Ben White should count his blessings..
That is very true.
Its whether you fit the profile of Gareth Southgate.
Gone are the days when you earned your cap.
Ben White should count his blessings.
Also I think the nature of international football maybe suits the classic finisher more than Arsenal’s style does sometimes.
Gareth Southgate should be managing Hull City or Bradford.
I just hope that any player that goes away on international duty doesn’t listen to a word he says.
What the fuck have Hull City and Bradford ever done to you that warrants your wanting to foist Southgate off on them?
Giroud has always been deemed good for the best national team in the world. For Giroud, it was weird for many years until his selection and starting XI posture became inevitable.
How did we let him go? Watched footage of a selection of his goals/assists… outrageous! Have a look on YouTube. Could do with him now…oh yeah he’s not a bad goalkeeper 😁
Very true let give the guy a chance to prove himself
What makes you think the England team could beat Arsenal?
Arsenal without Saka, Rice and Benny Blanco or the national team without them?
Ben White continues to be the real omission
Not at all. Best thing ever!
I agree.
The national team is more concerned with taking the knee and making political statements than playing entertaining football.
More annoying for me however is the fact that eight of the thirteen “latest” football stories involve the manure defeat to FC Copenhagen – Arsenal got one.
The only time they deem us worthy of coverage is to say negative things. I am glad I don’t pay them a penny..
More to the point is that the media loves conflict and negativity in general. We didn’t provide any of that last night but Man U certainly did, hence the attention.
He’s obviously not left out for footballing reasons. There was a personal issue between Ben White and assistant England boss Steve Holland which was why he left the World Cup squad. Obviously Southgate is unlikely to pick him again. Sad really because he’s one of England’s best right backs and certainly a better central defender than Maguire.
Earlier today I saw an article in which Southgate said the reason was that England already had a wealth of talent at left back.
He gave a list, which started with Kyle Walker(!)
To me it came across as like the military saying they didn’t need laser weapons as they already had a piece of 2×4 with nails through it.
“Eddie’s progressing really well as a young player.” Dude is 24 years old!
He is not going to get any better – if you cannot improve with the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard and Rice behind you then you never will.
Such a dim statement to come out with (his breakthrough moment for us came during a league cup game in 2017 ffs). Would expect nothing less from him though- nothing insightful to speak of outside of his trusted group of favourites, so just throws out the first middle of the road comment he can think of to bring out for a press conference. If the media have historically described some managers as “box office”, then whatever the opposite of that description is, Southgate’s got it down to a fine art.
He is good for both Arsenal and England let support this young man…He is having a lot of potentials to be the best…
Unless you are related which would justify such a statement, that comment has just won you the award for most deluded nonsense of 2023. Congrats 🥳
The autumn internationals really are getting tedious. I think they should be start scheduling them for the summer in a non-tournament year.
Is there a risk that Eddie could still switch to Ghana? If this happens we could be with out him in January – the Africa Cup of Nations. Not good as we will already be without a number of players.
I wonder if Eddie’s call up was to stop h declaring for Ghana. Similar to Jenkinson getting one cap in case Finland came knocking.