International football has seemingly been partly to blame for Arsenal’s poor starts in recent seasons but their record following mid-season domestic breaks is a different story.
The Euro 2016 hangover appeared to affect the Gunners more than most of their rivals, as Aaron Ramsey suffered an injury from which he is yet to recover while Laurent Koscielny and Mesut Ozil watched on from the sidelines as Liverpool ripped through a makeshift defence to win 4-3 on the opening day.
It was the sixth time in the last seven years that Arsenal began their campaign without a win and, not for the first time, the situation was compounded by an inability to land the club’s major transfer target earlier in the summer. The trend has raised concerns about Arsenal’s pre-season preparations but they seem to cope with the complications thrown up by international football during the campaign.
As the table above shows, since the start of the 2013-14 season, only Chelsea (31) have collected more points than the Gunners (29) in the matches immediately following an international break.
With Swansea set to visit Emirates Stadium tomorrow, manager Arsene Wenger has urged his players to rediscover their concentration quickly.
“Maybe the quality of a Premier League team is to be capable of refocusing quickly after international games,” said Wenger. “That’s what is at stake for us — to show that, despite the interruption, we can restart at the same level we had before.
“Although, if I look at the results after international breaks, it’s not negative. What is important is to move up to the next level and continue to improve.
“The quicker we refocus on our targets, the more chance we have to achieve that.”
Wenger can count himself fortunate Arsenal did not pick up any fresh injury concerns while his players were away but Alexis Sanchez was due to be assessed today having played the full 90 minutes of Chile’s 2-1 win over Peru which finished in the early hours of Tuesday morning UK time.
Given Olivier Giroud remains sidelined as he continues to rebuild his fitness following a toe injury, Wenger faces a straight choice over who leads Arsenal’s attack between Sanchez or £17million summer signing Lucas Perez, who has started just one Premier League game.
Perez impressed against Nottingham Forest in last month’s EFL Cup tie but it would represent a gamble to throw him in against Swansea, who will be managed by former USA coach Bob Bradley for the first time.
Francis Coquelin is available, having recovered from a knee injury, but Wenger is expected to persevere with Granit Xhaka and Santi Cazorla in central midfield.
MORE ABOUT