Morning all.
The Arsenal involvement at the World Cup saw all four of our England contingent play in what was a pretty uninspiring 0-0 draw with Ghana. Declan Rice started, and by the end he looked like a man who anyone with a heart and a conscience would steer gently by the hand to a waiting taxi to take him to the airport, to then transport him to a quiet seaside resort with a sun-lounger and a bottle of factor 50.
“Here’s a few bob, son”, they’d say, handing him an envelope with some cash in it. “Go lie on the beach for a while.”
I know Declan Rice does not need the envelope of cash, but he really looks like he could use that holiday. David Ornstein reported he limped through the mixed zone after the game with his left calf strapped. That’s a new one, because he was previously complaining about pain in his back/hamstring, and I think it might have happened late on when he chased back all the way to prevent a Ghana attack.
Sometimes the phrase ‘run into the ground’ is bandied around, and it’s not always accurate, but in this case I think we’re pretty close to that being spot on. There was a moment close to the end where he doubled over in the Ghana half, clearly absolutely knackered, and while I think we can all recognise how important he is for England and for Arsenal, we’re reaching a point where it almost feels negligent not to try and protect him a bit more.
He had a couple of chances in the game, fizzing one shot over the bar in the first half, and then quite getting over a header from a Noni Madueke cross. Ghana’s plan was to sit in a low block and defend, which they did pretty successfully. I thought England lacked guile in the final third, which is why Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze came on.
Saka forced the goalkeeper into one decent save, but there were a couple of moments when things could have gone wrong for England. Jordan Pickford got very lucky when he came steaming out of his goal and was awarded a free kick when he collided with an opponent. The Ghana player didn’t touch the ball, but I’m still not 100% how the referee decided to award the free kick to the England goalkeeper. Then late on, there was a challenge in the box from Ezri Konsa which went completely unremarked upon by the BBC commentary team, but which looked – to my eyes at least – more than a bit reckless. There didn’t appear to be any VAR check either.
England did hit the bar through Nico O’Reilly and then Harry Kane blasted the rebound over the bar when he should have scored. For me, it served him right, because a little bit earlier Saka went for a header which he had every right to, and Kane – who was nowhere near getting the ball – threw his arms up in disgust as if a great chance had been taken away from him. Pure Cristiano Ronaldo vibes, and you don’t get to point the finger of blame at Bukayo Saka when you’ve spent the game like a big bowl of lumpy porridge in human form taking fewer touches than anyone else.
I also wondered why England have Declan Rice taking corners from both sides. Those in-swingers for Arsenal have been a real threat, but that’s something we look to do from our right hand side as well. Noni Madueke, generally speaking, takes a decent corner and provided a few assists last season with his delivery, and when Saka is on the pitch I don’t really understand why his delivery – which is even better – is not being utilised. Maybe it’s just part of the plan to make Rice do as much as possible at every moment.
Today at England training
Kit wash: Declan Rice
Cone deployment: Declan Rice
Lugging the pretend wall for free-kicks into place: Declan Rice
Cleaning the boots: Declan Rice
Shuttle runs up and down the terraces: Declan Rice x 25
Media commitments: Declan Rice
Evening cabaret: Declan Rice
Picking up the cones: Ryo Miyachi
Anyway, hardly a disaster for England after their opening win over Croatia, and they should still have enough to get beyond Panama in their next game. Elsewhere Portugal beat Uzbekistan 5-0, Croatia beat Panama 1-0, and Colombia are through to the knock-out stages after goal from Crystal Palace’s Daniel Munoz gave them a 1-0 win over DR Congo.
Today, there’s a load of football on with Bosnia and Herzegovina facing Qatar at the same time (20.00 in this part of the world), as Switzerland play Canada. Then Morocco play Haiti as Scotland take on Brazil (23.00), with Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli potentially involved there. Then overnight (02.00) there’s South Africa versus South Korea and Mexico against Czechia. Is that too much football? It probably is, you know.
Not much happening from an Arsenal perspective, but what little there is we can talk about tomorrow, and perhaps there will be a story or two today which gives us something to mull over.
For now though, have a good one folks.
