Interlull round-up: Calafiori returns to London

Morning, welcome to a brand new week.

Let’s start with the news that Riccardo Calafiori has returned to London after sustaining a calf injury in freakish fashion on Saturday. The reporting around it suggests it’s not too serious, but again, I’m a but dubious. If it was just a knock, I suspect Italy would keep him around. International managers don’t always concern themselves with what happens to a player once their use for him is done, so it’s obviously bad enough to rule him out of Italy’s game tonight.

Then again, perhaps there is some consideration that he’s just moved to Arsenal, and that doing anything risky with Calafiori’s fitness would be a difficult thing for him in the nascent stage of his career in North London. We’ll just have to wait and see what emerges during the week (if anything), and whether Mikel Arteta gives us much of an update when he meets the press on Friday ahead of Sunday’s North London derby. Let’s keep everything crossed it’s a sore one, but not much more than that.

Last night, David Raya played the full 90 again for Spain as they hammered Switzerland 4-1, while Jakub Kiwior didn’t feature at all in Poland’s 1-0 defeat to Croatia. His situation is an interesting one, because if Calafiori is out even for a little bit, his place in the pecking order changes a bit. All the same, he’s still behind Jurrien Timber and Oleksandr Zinchenko for playing time at left-back, and only injury or suspension will open the door for a game at centre-half.

I can imagine that the arrival of Calafiori and the fact Timber is fit again has dented his confidence a bit, and it’s a tricky spot to be in as back-up to the back-up in two positions. I suspect he’s almost nailed on for a January loan move somewhere, assuming there are no fitness issues that require his presence in the squad. That might well be a big IF though.

Tonight, France face Belgium with William Saliba likely to be in action there; Martin Odegaard’s Norway take on Austria at home; while Ghana are away to Niger in an AFCON qualifier. That’s all the Arsenal involvement today.

Yesterday, I neglected to mention Arsenal Women’s 1-0 win over Rosenborg on Saturday which puts them into the draw today for the final qualifier for the Champions League. The potential opposition are fairly strong, with one of Juventus, Hacken, Paris FC, Fiorentina or Sporting to face over two-legs. That draw takes place around lunch-time today, we’ll bring you the news over on Arseblog News, and Tim and Jamie will have a new Arsenal Women Arsecast for you tomorrow with more discussion and analysis.

Finally for today, it has been fun reading about ‘civil war’ at Chelsea as Todd Chad Chud Boehley and the other guy go head to head. War, good god, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Nothing expect the potential downfall and extinction of a club that has irreparably damaged football. I want to see Frank Lampard and John Terry go down like Willem Dafoe in Platoon, arms flailing in the air as a flurry of bullets hedge fund bond documents cut them to their core. We can only live in hope.

Right, let’s leave it there. We will have an Arsecast Extra for you a bit later. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Threads @gunnerblog and @arseblog 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.

Pod should be out mid-morning. For now, have a good one.