The final matches of the qualification for the summer World Cup, international friendly matches, but also the return of club football, in Arsenal's case, the return of the FA Cup. All this and much more was brought by the past week. There were great individual performances from Viktor Gyökeres, Ethan Nwaneri, and Max Dowman in their national team colours. However, for some of the Gunners' players, the matches in their national jerseys brought great disappointment. Christian Nørgaard Riccardo Calafiori had to say goodbye to World Cup participation due to his teams' poorly handled penalty shootouts. As for Arsenal as a whole, fans didn't have much reason to be happy last week. The squad Mikel Arteta's Unfortunately, in the FA Cup quarter-final match, they were surprisingly no match for Southampton and have been eliminated from the competition. A minor positive was the return of several players from injury, most notably Norwegian captain Martin Ødegaard. Let's take a closer look at everything.
Results
| 📅 Date and time | 🏟️ Match and the result | ⚽️ Shooters | 🏆 Competition |
| 4. 4. 2026, 21:00 (CET) | Southampton 2:1 Arsenal | Gyökeres | FA Cup (Quarter-finals) |
News and attractions
National teams
- In the previous instalment, we discussed the fact that a number of players did not travel to international call-ups at all, and others subsequently left international call-ups due to various health problems. A detailed overview of which players remained in North London during the break, who instead departed to represent their countries, and who returned prematurely from these call-ups, found in the article Arsenal Weekly | Vol. 9. So today we will take a look at the players who played in the second national team matches scheduled during this window.
Ben White
- Ben White following his return to the national team shirt and scoring his first goal for the national team against Uruguay, he was credited with another start also in the match against Japan. This time, the experienced defender He started in the first eleven and stayed on the pitch until the 59th minute, when he was replaced by Tino Livramento from Newcastle. England eventually lost surprisingly to Japan 0:1 at Wembley.
David Raya
- David Raya in a friendly match against Egypt He put it between the three posts right from the first minute. Although he was substituted in the 62nd minute, fortunately it wasn't a forced substitution.. His place in goal was taken by Barcelona goalkeeper Joan García, who was often linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium before his move to the Spanish club. The match between Spain and Egypt ended in a goalless draw.
Cristhian Mosquera
- Cristhian Mosquera, who made his debut for the Spanish national team in the match against Serbia, where he came on for a few minutes towards the end, played the whole match against Egypt.
Kai Havertz
- Kai Havertz despite speculation about his premature return from international duty, he ultimately remained in the German national squad for the second friendly match. against Ghana, in which he played the first half. He contributed to Germany's 2:1 victory with a converted penalty.
Gabriel Martinelli
- Gabriel Martinelli in a friendly match between Brazil and Croatia He came on for the final twenty minutes at the set time sealed it with his go-ahead goal for a 3:1 victory for Carlo Ancelotti's team.
Riccardo Calafiori
- Riccardo Calafiori played the whole match, including extra time, against Bosnia, in which Italy was at a numerical disadvantage from the end of the first half. The match, which went 1:1 in regulation time (and then after extra time), was decided by penalties. Italy was not enough for home side Bosnia in them and will not be going to the World Cup this time either. For the third time in a row. The Arsenal defender did not actively participate in the penalty shootout.
Christian Nørgaard
- Christian Nørgaard experienced with the Danish national team a similar evening as Riccardo Calafiori with the Italian national team. The match against the Czech national team, which ended 1:1 after regular time and 2:2 after extra time, was logically decided by penalties, in which Denmark failed and thus handed their place at the summer championships to the Czech team. Christian Nørgaard came on in the 60th minute and did not participate in the penalty shootout.
Viktor Gyökeres
- Viktor Gyökeres after his hat-trick against Ukraine He also shone in the match against Poland, in which he scored the goal for 3:2 in the 89th minute., which turned out to be a progression just a few minutes later. The Swedish forward thus left the national team gathering with a record of four goals scored from two matches. Viktor Gyökeres therefore made a significant contribution to Sweden's qualification for the summer World Cup.
Myles Lewis-Skelly
- Myles Lewis-Skelly played for the England Under-21s, who comfortably beat a Moldova selection 4:1, a very good match. Lewis-Skelly spent on the pitch the whole match and to victory contributed with a goal assist. And guess who he assisted? Yes, it was his close friend and Arsenal teammate, Ethan Nwaneri.
Ethan Nwaneri
- Ethan Nwaneri, as I already revealed a few lines above, also intervened in the English U21 match against Moldova. Despite being substituted early in the previous match against Andorra due to injury, it thankfully wasn't anything serious, and so Nwaneri started in the next. In the match, in which played 74 minutes, Stihl To score two goals, which significantly helped England to an important victory.
Max Dowman
- Max Dowman He started in the England Under-19s starting lineup against Portugal and wrote his name in bold letters with England's huge 6:0 victory. Dowman netted one goal in the match, to which he added two assists. He managed all this in 71 minutes, Then, with England leading 3:0, he was substituted.
FA Cup
- To the FA Cup match Positives are hard to find, but on the other hand we can find some despite the poor team performance. I'm thinking in particular Players returning from the injury list. Without a doubt, the biggest captain's comeback Martin Ødegaard, who, having started for the first time since the league match against Manchester United at the end of January, took to the field on Saturday. After health problems, we were also able to see on the pitch Gabriel, which I'll get to in a moment, William Saliba, Martin Zubimendi and Noni Madueke. In Gabriel's case, the forced substitution certainly frightened all Arsenal fans. We can only hope that it was merely a precautionary measure in the case of the Brazilian centre-back.
Other
- Mikel Arteta won from within the Premier League Manager of the Month award for March.
- Gabriel Jesus last week celebrated his 29th birthday. Good luck in your sporting and personal life, Gabby!
Next week's programme
Arsenal will face in the coming week two very important matches. As early as Tuesday, Mikel Arteta's charges will be presented in the first quarter-final match of the Champions League in Lisbon, where they will test their strength against the home team Sporting. It will follow Saturday league match, in which Arsenal will welcome to North London Bournemouth. After losing the EFL Cup final and then crashing out in the FA Cup, Arsenal are now fighting „only“ on two fronts, but on the biggest ones.
| 📅 Date and time | ⚽️ Match | 🏆 Competition |
| 7. 4. 2026, 21:00 (CET) | Sporting vs Arsenal | Champions League (Quarter-finals, 1st leg) |
| 11. 4. 2026, 13:30 (CET) | Arsenal vs Bournemouth | Premier League (Round 32) |
And that's all from the tenth episode of Arsenal Weekly.
See you next time, I'll look forward to it!
You might be interested in
- Arsenal Weekly | Vol. 13
- Arsenal Weekly | Vol. 12
- Arsenal Weekly | Vol. 11
- Arsenal Weekly | Vol. 9
- Arsenal Weekly | Vol. 8
Editor, administrator and editor of the True Gunner Diary website, but above all a devoted Arsenal fan. I started with sports articles at the Tipsport bookmaker, where I have published more than 100 blogs. If you want to know more about me, check out the section of the same name here on the site.