Seven Arsenal Players Reach The Last Eight Of The World Cup

At the outset of the World Cup there were 11 Arsenal players involved in the tournament and seven of those players have now reached the quarter finals. That figure could have been eight, but Bacary Sagna departed from the club on July 1st to spend the rest of his career on the Manchester City bench. It's still a very good return from the Arsenal contingent though and a few of those players will have hopes of making the semi finals or even the final.

The only Arsenal players to go home were Spain's Santi Cazorla and the English duo of Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain when their teams exited in the group stages. All the others progressed with their teams winning their groups and all the group winners then winning in the last 16. All of those Arsenal players can't make it through to the semi finals though with Germany playing France in a game which could have up to five Arsenal players in it.

For me the most impressive Arsenal player so far has probably been Joel Campbell as he has led the line for surprise packets Costa Rica. He scored in the 3-1 victory over Uruguay and was very impressive in their 1-0 victory over Italy too. He didn't look quite so good against England, but put in a sterling performance in the backs to the wall penalty shoot out win over Greece. He won't have an easy task against the Netherlands in the next game, but I haven't been impressed by their defence and he might get some joy out of them.

Both Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil have been mainstays of the German team who took seven points in the group stages and beat Algeria after extra time in the last 16. Ozil scored their second goal and it proved to be crucial when Algeria got a late consolation for their efforts. Ozil may not have been at his best in the game, but he kept going and there could still be plenty to come from him. 

Mertesacker continues to be slated by the critics as many of them claim Germany cannot win the World Cup with his lack of pace in their defence. It would make you wonder how he has managed to appear for his country more than 100 times if he's such a bad player. Germany have to be considered real contenders for me with the array of talent they have available to them.

Of course Germany will play France in the last eight and that French team will probably have Laurent Koscielny in it and possibly Olivier Giroud too. Koscielny has got his chance since Mamadou Sakho picked up an injury and he has looked the part in the centre of their defence. France weren't overly impressive in their last 16 win over Nigeria, but they got stronger towards the end and I thought they deserved to go through.

Giroud started in that game but France improved in attack when he went off to be replaced by supposed Arsenal target Antoine Griezmann. He's one of many players at the World Cup who Arsenal are apparently pursuing at the moment. Sagna has been kept out of the French team by Mathieu Debuchey and he's another player meant to be interesting Arsenal. I think he has more to offer in an attacking sense than Sagna, but I don't think he can match Sagna's defending.

Neither Lukas Podolski nor Thomas Vermaelen took part in the last 16 games due to injury, but they will both hope to be back for the quarter finals. If they are available they will both probably be on the bench, but they might have something to offer before the tournament is over. 

Arsenal's contingent of seven players left at the World Cup is more than that of any other Premier League club. It's not a bad return for a team who finished fourth and still can't match the bottomless pockets of the oil rich City and Chelsea. Hopefully a few more players who have lit up the World Cup will be putting in appearances in an Arsenal shirt next season.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.