There are a number of Euro 2012 qualifying matches going on today and over the weekend, as well as the France vs. USA friendly featuring Laurent Koscielny (today at 3PM ET on ESPN 2 and 3). So in the spirit of things, feel free to comment on all the action you'd like to below.

From EPL Talk, some of the weekend's other action:

Friday, November 11:

• EURO 2012 qualifier, playoff 1st leg, Bosnia-Herzegovina v Portugal, 2pm, ESPN3.com/ESPN Deportes
• EURO 2012 qualifier, playoff 1st leg, Turkey v Croatia, 2:05pm, ESPN3.com
• EURO 2012 qualifier, playoff 1st leg, Czech Republic v Montenegro, 2:15pm, ESPN3.com
• EURO 2012 qualifier, playoff 1st leg, Estonia v Repubic of Ireland, 2:45pm, ESPN3.com
• FA Cup 1st round, Cambridge v Wrexham, 2:45pm, FOX Soccer

Saturday, November 12:

• FA Cup 1st round, Newport County v Shrewsbury Town, 7:30am, FOX Soccer Plus
• FA Cup 1st round, Alfreton Town v Carlisle, 10am, FOX Soccer
• FA Cup 1st round, Swindon v Huddersfield, 10am, FOX Soccer Plus
• International friendly, England v Spain, 12pm, FOX Soccer (available at 3pm on foxsoccer.tv)

Welcome to week two of what may be the worst International break ever. At least last time we had the promise of transfer activity to help with the tedium; now, we're (or at least I am) waiting desperately for highlights of Arsenal U-18's 3-0 smashing of Chelsea (yeah, take THAT!). This week promises to get a little more exciting though; the young, exciting and very lovable Armenia travel to Ireland with a playoff place on the line, while Belgium have to match Turkey's result against Azerbaijian. The problem for the Belgians is that they're away to the unbeaten Germany, who have scored 31 goals and conceded 6, and beat Turkey 3-1, with Per Mertesacker playing 90 minutes. They're going to win the Euros, aren't they? 

Oh, and Scotland could qualify. But they're playing Spain, so they won't. 

Anyway, there were 16 Arsenal players involved with Internationals this week. Here's some of the highlights:

Continue reading this post »

The 2012 African Cup of Nations field of 16 is now finalized after this past week's round of fixtures. The following teams will be going for the prize in January, with potential Arsenal call-ups in brackets:

Continue reading this post »

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has continued his superb start to the 2011/12, scoring a hattrick in the England Under 21's 3-0 victory away at Iceland in their 2013 Under 21 Championships qualifier. Chamberlain has now scored 3 goals and made 5 assists plus winning a penalty for the Under 21s in 3 games, and has scored two goals in two starts for Arsenal, against Shrewsbury and Olympiacos. A start in the Premier League must surely be close for the 18 year old, as both Gervinho and Andrey Arshavin have failed to impress thus far.

Continue reading this post »

Today brings the bulk of the action for the second group of matches during the international break. A number of Arsenal players are once again in action for their countries--Andrei Arshavin had a good effort stopped by the rampant Shay Given so far today--you can follow all the action on the SBNation Soccer main page, where Kevin is going to keep all y'all updated as the day goes on.

In action for Arsenal today:

Aaron Ramsey, England vs. Wales.

Theo Walcott, samesies.

Robin van Persie, Finland vs. Netherlands.

Park Chu Young, Kuwait vs. South Korea.

Per Mertesacker, Poland vs. Germany.

Wojciech Szczesny, samesies.

Bacary Sagna, Romania vs. France.

Laurent Koscielny, samesies.

Yossi Benayoun, Croatia vs. Israel.

Tomas Rosicky, Czech Republic vs. Ukraine.

Johan Djourou, Switzerland vs. Bulgaria.

Feel free to comment on all the action below. Also, in an effort to prevent further injuries, please pray to whatever higher powers you might believe in, FERVENTLY.

England's U-21 squad dismantled the Israel U-21s today in a friendly, and Arsenal winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was at the heart of the quartet of second-half goals for the Young Lions. Down 1-0 at halftime, Stuart Pearce brought on the young winger, freshly arrived to the Gunners from Southampton, and according to the ever-amazing Jamie Sanderson at Young Guns, his introduction put a charge into a noodly England side.

Some of the highlights of the match can be seen at 101 Great Goals; AOC uses his pace well on the first goal to find room to float a cross over to Martyn Waghorn. The second goal is another AOC assist, but most of the work is done by Marvin Sordell, who absolutely flamethrowers one in from 35 yards. Lord love a screamer. Primus once asked "Is It Luck?", but in this case, nobody needs to know.

AOC then won the penalty that Aston Villa's Nathan Delfouneso converted before supplying the last pass for Arsneal loanee Henri Lansbury to turn home.

If Oxlade-Chamberlain can carry this form into his play for Arsenal, well, that would be nice.

Good morning, everybody. With a number of international fixtures up and running today, this is the place to comment on all the action that is going on.

A quick roundup of the Gunners who have had fixtures already:

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put in an excellent shift for the England U21s yesterday as they crushed Azerbaijan 6-0. He looked lively for his 76 minute shift and played a big part in both of...

...Henri Lansbury's goals for the side. Lansbury, of course, is on loan now at Championship side West Ham United, but this kind of form can only be good for his development. Hopefully he can continue to improve his game and challenge for a spot in Arsenal's midfield down the road.

Park Chu-Young did serious work in his World Cup qualifier against Lebanon, scoring a hat-trick to help his nation win 6-0. His first was a quite nice redirected volley as he came flying in from the right; his second an unstoppable header from a corner kick (one thing we didn't mention during all the news on Wednesday is that he has a FORTY-ONE INCH VERTICAL*), and his third absolutely fizzed in low at the far post from 15 yards.

Please, Mr. Park: keep this up.

Continue reading this post »

Euro 2012 Qualifying match: England vs. Switzerland
Kickoff: 11:45 EDT
TV Coverage: Fox Soccer Channel

England face Switzerland today in their Group G qualifying match for Euro 2012. Jack Wilshere and Arsenal defender Johan Djourou could both play today along with Theo Walcott.

Other Gunners potentially in action over the next few days include Tomas Rosicky, Thomas Vermaelen, Nicklas Bendtner, Andrei Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh, Emmanuel Eboue, Kieran Gibbs, and Henri Lansbury.

Feel free to comment on the international action below, and enjoy the match.