How Arsenal's Carabao Cup exit could affect Takehiro Tomiyasu, Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny
Arsenal may have avoided one major obstacle looking ahead to January 2024 with two major international tournaments taking place.
On one side of the world, Ivory Coast will stage the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. Due to begin on January 13 and conclude on February 11, the group stage draw was conducted last month and the big talking point from a Gunners perspective is Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are set to cross paths.
As many observers are expecting Ghana and Egypt to progress from Group B, it means Mikel Arteta is likely to be without two senior defensive midfielders for a period in January. Of course, that is with the assumption the aforementioned pair are named in their respective nations' final squads.
Having said that, at the same time as AFCON, the 2023 AFC Asian Cup is being held in Qatar. The only difference — as tiny as it might be — is the tournament commences on Friday, January 12 with the final being held on Saturday, February 10.
Initially pencilled in to be held in China during the summer, in May 2022 it was announced that they would not host the tournament due to the Covid-19 situation in the country. Following confirmation of the switch to Qatar and with it a winter tournament, the group stage draw placed Japan in Group D alongside Indonesia, Iraq and Vietnam.
This means Takehiro Tomiyasu is on course to be the third Arsenal star selected for international duty at the beginning of the new year. But just like, Partey and Elneny, the only fixture — as things currently stand — they are guaranteed to miss is the London derby against Crystal Palace on January 20.
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