News

World Cup Wrap-Up: Rambo reveals and Brazil skill

Aaron Ramsdale in training for England

Throughout the next few weeks, we'll be keeping you up to date on what our Gunners stars have been getting up to with our World Cup Wrap-Ups.

Take a look at the first edition, which sees our players arrive in Qatar and get settled into their new surroundings before the action kicks off.

Ramsdale speaks

Aaron Ramsdale in training for England

Aaron Ramsdale has been discussing some of his clubmates heading to the World Cup, and described William Saliba as “a man-mountain.” “He glides across the pitch, he doesn’t seem to sprint,” he told ESPN. “He gets his big arm across people. 

“He’s got everything honestly and he’s showing it on the pitch. He’s keeping some of the best strikers in the league quiet at the minute and all the credit goes to him.”

Matt Turner also came in for praise from his fellow goalkeeper: “The way I describe him, he is Tigger. He wants to say yes to everything. He has the classic American attitude where he says yes, he wants to do things. He wants to try things, he’s always happy, smiling.”

And on potentially facing him at the tournament, Aaron added: “He’s fighting a losing battle at the minute because there’s probably six or seven English lads in the dressing room. I think even the foreigners are giving him a little bit as well! But that would be special if both of us are at either end or he’s playing, or I’m playing.

“It will be a great game and I’ll be able to watch him of course as a friend. But for that 90 minutes, we want to win. I want him to have a good game, but at the end of the day, we want the win in that group.”

Saka in action already

Bukayo Saka playing with some migrant workers in Qatar

Following a training session in Doha, members of the England team including Bukayo Saka invited some migrant construction workers for a kickaround on the pitch, as a thank for the role they played in helping to build the stadia and infrastructure ahead of the tournament.

Off the pitch, Bukayo has also been showing off his basketball skills at the team hotel:

Brazilian magic

Gabriel Martinelli has been catching the eye during Brazil’s training sessions, as this video proves:

Meanwhile both of our Brazilian stars shared images of them gearing up for the tournament, which they’ll start against Serbia on Thursday:

Turner ready to go

Matt Turner

Matt Turner has revealed he is feeling 100 per cent after suffering a groin injury a few weeks ago, which saw him miss the Europa League games against PSV Eindhoven and FC Zurich.

“I'm 100 percent, no limitations, smashing balls again, all good,” he told reporters. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I actually was like on the border of tears. I know that sounds a bit soft, but I’ve never had to do that before. I’ve never had to really listen to my body and feel like maybe it wasn’t the right move to push through something.

“I’ve pushed through many injuries in my career, many little nicks that might have held someone else out, that’s never been my M.O. So to go against everything that was ingrained in me and look out for myself was challenging, and that can be hard in professional sports.”

Getting up to speed

Meanwhile, the rest of our representatives have been working hard, getting themselves ready for the tournament which kicks off on Sunday.

William Saliba in training for France

Ben White in training for England

Granit Xhaka's Instagram post training for Switzerland