Johan Djourou has as predicted been rewarded for his excellent Arsenal performances with his first senior call-up by Switzerland. They play the Scots at Hampden. I have to admit to knowing too little about the Swiss squad to know how likely he is to be able to break in to the set-up alongside Philippe Senderos (but Colin does, see update at the bottom of this page). Hands up anyone who wouldn't have bet good money against Arsenal ever sharing a centre-back pairing with the Swiss national side! It's got to be good news for us though, as well as the Swiss, and young Johan of course. Let's hope he makes the World Cup squad.

The other one which stands out and which I'm amazed hasn't attracted more comment so far, is that Robert Pires joins Thierry Henry in the France squad for the Paris match against Slovakia. Pires has been a bit of an outcast for a while, after falling out of favour with coach Raymond Domenech, as well as getting fined by the French FA for his dress-sense (see here). But he's always said he was more than keen to play, despite being critical of Domenech in a magazine interview last year. Bobby apologised for that back in December and now it looks like he may have a chance of squeezing his way back into Domenech's World Cup plans.

Most matches are on March 1st, midway between our tricky (ye gods!) trips to Blackburn Rovers and Fulham. Other Gunners involved include Freddie Ljungberg (Ireland vs Sweden), Robin van Persie (Holland vs Ecuador, if he's fit by then), Alexander Hleb (a mini-tournament for Belarus), Jens Lehmann (Germany vs Italy), Mart Poom (Estonia vs Norn Iron), Gilberto (Russia vs Brazil) and U21 or U19 call-ups for Mathieu Flamini, Abou Diaby, Theo Walcott, and Kerrea Gilbert (if fit).

Bloody hell. More injuries on the horizon? I guess we should just be grateful that Brazil are playing in Russia rather than in South America, perhaps there's more chance than usual of his being back in time to play for us the following weekend.

Rupe adds...
Colin writes the following from Switzerland....

"Djourou has a real chance of making the world cup squad alongside Senderos as centre back. At the moment it's Senderos and Patrick Müller (who recently went back to Lyon from Basel after a very disappointing season) who would appear to have the advantage, having played together a few times during qualification. Müller was a real star during his first spell at Lyon from 2000 to 2004. Just a year ago it would have been unthinkable to suggest that he wasn't first choice centre back. But he is getting on a bit now (30), and did himself no favours with some very poor displays for the Swiss champions."

"The Swiss press appears to be pushing for Djourou and Senderos to play together. They both came over to Geneva in January to play in an indoor invitational event and got a fantastic reception from the big crowd, and very favourable articles all over the country. One presumes that the Scotland game is a dry-run for the World Cup campaign. If they do well, I can't see Müller getting his place back, barring injury to one of the other two. It's a big game for the young Arsenal player."