The news has come through this morning that Arsenal's returning heroes and world cup winners Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Ozil are to miss the start of the premier league season.
The trio who featured in Germany's triumphant campaign in Brazil are still on holiday after a long and tiring season, particularly Ozil who played his first full season in the premier league and featured in all of Germany's world cup matches, a season which for the Arsenal playmaker has stretched from August 2013 to July 2014.
The news will not come as a huge surprise but hearing it directly from manager Arsene Wenger is an affirmation that although eligible to play, Arsenal's German players will be rested in order to allow a comprehensive preseason build up.
This is due to a FIFA imposed mandatory four week break for players who feature in the world cup finals, meaning that players involved in the tournament's last game will not return to training until 4 days before the start of the new season on August 16th.
Whilst many Arsenal fans will be disappointed and a little apprehensive at the prospect of going without two of our key players for the season's opener against Crystal Palace, I believe that this is the logical precaution the manager must take to protect our most valuable players from injury.
By Wenger's own admission last season's title was lost due to injury to our key players. At one point Ozil, Ramsey, Walcott and Wilshere were all ineligible to play through injury which ultimately cost us our first title since 2004.
It is, however, very likely that both Mertesacker and Ozil will play in Arsenal's second game of the season against Everton as by then they will have had nearly two weeks to prepare. My only concern is that whilst others will have had a full preseason to get up to match speed and fitness, our German players may take some time to adjust.
I suppose that's the price you pay for having three world cup winners in ya team....get innnnnn!!
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