The Arsenal players confirmed for international duty as Takehiro Tomiyasu absence explained
The third, and final, international break of the 2023/24 season has arrived and, despite Martin Odegaard not linking up with the Norway squad, Arsenal will be well-represented across the globe.
The Gunners' decent start to the campaign continued at the weekend with a 3-1 win over Burnley. As that result keeps them a point behind defending champions Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, it remains to be seen if this break disrupts any momentum.
Despite losing their unbeaten record — in somewhat controversial circumstances against Newcastle United at the beginning of the month — as well as crashing out of the Carabao Cup, Arsenal are well-placed to mount another title challenge and qualify from their Champions League group.
A short trip across London to face Brentford is the Gunners' first fixture after the international break, so it goes without saying that Mikel Arteta will be hopeful all of his players return unscathed. That number currently stands at 16 with Gabriel Jesus joining the Brazil squad — along with Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli — for their games against Colombia and Argentina.
Now, football.londonunderstands the striker is not expected to feature against the former as he recovers from a hamstring injury that has seen him miss Arsenal's last five games across all competitions. But the reason for his call-up is Brazil exercised their right, under FIFA rules, in order to assess him themselves.
«In the last call-up, we hadn’t called up [Gabriel] Martinelli, from Arsenal,» Brazil coach Fernando Diniz said. «He didn’t report to the CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) in a very complete way, so we didn’t imagine that Martinelli would be ready to play against Venezuela and Uruguay, and he was
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