I am sure Arsenal are going to sorely miss Declan Rice next week in the crucial North London Derby, as he showed once again in England’s 2-0 win over Ireland in Dublin, not only scoring the opening goal but providing the assist for Jack Grealish to double their lead.
There was a kerfuffle before the game regarding both scorers, who started off their international careers playing for Ireland but then switched allegiance to England. Rice refused to celebrate his goal and explained afterwards: “Obviously my grandparents are Irish and they’ve all passed away now. So I did not want to be disrespectful to them. I really enjoyed myself playing for Ireland and did not think it was appropriate.”
Meanwhile in Germany, Kai Havertz won and then scored the resulting penalty in Die Mannschaft’s 5th goal in their demolition of Hungary, and wa highly praised by his manager after the game highlighting his recent improvement and suggests he could still improvve further. Nagelsmann said: “Kai has made a big step forward in the last two years. He has the potential to be world class in many positions.
“He runs an incredible amount and has become very clever. Sometimes he lacks a bit of luck when it comes to finishing.
“The co-captaincy is good for him. He is a smart person, very reflective, very modest. I hope that he continues to believe in himself.”
Havertz has certainly started the season in the same form he finished the last one, and hopefully he will be adding to his tally in next week’s game at Tottenham.
