Gunners' tournament to forget and Arteta's headaches

The London side was the sixth club with the most internationals at EURO 2024, behind Man City, Inter Milan, PSG, Real Madrid, and Barcelona. However, as the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca said, it is quality rather than quantity that matters. And no, nobody denies Arsenal players' quality. It's just they didn't show it, or at least most of them didn't - something that could give Mikel Arteta headaches.

Three of 11 Gunners represented England - Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, and Aaron Ramsdale. And while the goalkeeper got the same role as in the club (he's a second choice behind David Raya), the other two started every match! Rice even spent every second on the pitch! Yeah, England reached the final, but their performances and gameplay were mainly poor, dull, and didn't live up to expectations. Saka scored only one goal - a crucial one, though - equalizing against Switzerland, while Rice fit into the general impression of the Three Lions. The most memorable thing about him was a mistake that led to Xavi Simons' opening goal in the semi-final against the Netherlands. That speaks volumes.

Kai Havertz was a starting forward for Germany in every match at EURO. He scored twice - both times from the spot - and missed a lot. He was so bad that as many as 90% of German fans wanted Niclas Fullkrug in the starting 11 instead of him! If Arteta watched Havertz's plays carefully, he could be nowhere near satisfied.

Another Gunner who never left the pitch in the tournament was William Saliba, the only player who met the expectations. The French defence looked pretty well, conceding only one goal until the semi-final against Poland from the spot. However, the Spaniards were simply on another level, beating France 2-1. Nevertheless, Saliba's overall performance was good.

Namesakes in London? Arteta wants Merino

Leandro Trossard was one of the biggest disappointments of all Arsenal players. The Belgian started two games, once entered from the bench, and didn't make any positive impact. That made Domenico Tedesco leave him on the bench for the entire round of 16 clash against France. The exact same thing happened to Jorginho, who was also left out of the team in Italy's disappointing eighth-final defeat by Switzerland, while he was outplayed by both Spanish and Croatian midfielders in the group stage.

Jakub Kiwior (Poland) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (Ukraine) both ended their paths at the continental tournament in the group stage. Poland was even the first eliminated team, and Kiwior's only notable move was causing a penalty for France. On the other hand, Ukraine was the first-ever team to be knocked out after collecting four points in the group. However, Zinchenko was far from the expected level, falling short just like his national team.

Despite being Arteta's first pick regarding keepers, David Raya was Unai Simon's backup in the Spain squad. Nevertheless, the Arsenal goalie played 90 minutes against Albania and kept a clean sheet. Ultimately, he became the European champion and will remember this EURO for life. Finally, although he spent the previous season on loan at Real Sociedad, Kieran Tierney is still an Arsenal player. Scotland was knocked out already in the group stage, conceding seven goals - most of all 24 participating teams, with Tierney's plays completely matching his team's record.