Morning.
It’s a Sunday in the Interlull and I was out late due to birthday shenanigans. This is likely to be a very short blog. Not quite this short, but still pretty short in the grand scheme of things.
Some Arsenal players played for England last night. England lost to Spain. Some Arsenal players played for Spain, but not David Raya because their manager loves Unai Simon. Anyway, Ezri Konsa, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Bukayo Saka started, while Eberechi Eze stayed on the bench all evening. Just like David Raya.
For Spain, Mikel Merino came on in the 82nd minute, replacing Dani Olmo. I have to say, I think the Spanish have a more efficient way of shortening someone’s name. His name is Daniel Olmo, but rather than Danny it becomes Dani, and that’s just easier. You’re simply constricting the name, rather than adding an N nobody asked for then slapping a Y on the end. I’m sure this works for all names.
Look at Merino himself. If he chose to go by the name ‘Mike’, he simply has to drop an L. No fuss. Nicolas = Nico. Xavier = Xavi. Pedri is another one. His full name is Pedribalerto, so it just makes sense. I won’t hear any argument against this. By the way, Marti Zubimendi was also in the Spain squad but didn’t play, and England can point the finger at Harold Kane who missed a penalty.
Elsewhere, Viktor Gyokeres scored for Sweden, but this wasn’t last night, it was on Friday so it feels like old news now. Nevertheless, with concerns over Kai Havertz after his injury for Germany, this is a positive thing regardless of when it happened. I know, we should stop living in the past, but Friday isn’t that past-y, so let’s take it for what it is. A large man scoring a goal, and isn’t that something we can all get behind?
I see that Riccardo Calafiori played 90 minutes for Italy as they were beaten 2-0 at home by Belgium. What is going on with Italy these days? It’s a sad state of affairs really. Roberto Mancini is head coach again, but you have to ask the obvious question here. Was the first credential they looked for ‘Wears a scarf really well’? If so, it makes sense to appoint him. But perhaps there’s a need for a more expansive hiring process than that, because in the modern game I don’t think that’s quite enough. As younger managers lash out their increasingly sophisticated tactical plans against you, being able to throw a length of cashmere around your neck in admittedly impressive fashion just can’t counter the high press.
I have now written 433 words (before the start of this sentence), and having first written the title of today’s blog, I’m in danger of ruining things by being longer than short. Short is the whole point today. So I’m going to leave it there.
However, we will have an Arsecast Extra for you a bit later. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com, so fire away using 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.
The pod should be out around around 1 or so. Until then, have a good one.