Jose Reyes, Cesc Fabregas: Spain had to come from behind twice to beat the Ivory Coast 3-2. Cesc started the game, becoming Spain's second youngest full international player ever and winning plaudits as perhaps Spain's best player on the night. Good news for his hopes of making the World Cup squad. Jose scored the second equaliser, a cracking 20 yarder, with a quarter of an hour to go. Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue did not play (Kolo at least was on the bench), perhaps as a favour to Arsenal in recognition of our defensive problems? Anyway it's good news for the Ivorians that they can come so close to Spain with 2 of their best players missing.

Thierry Henry: France lost at home to Slovakia, former Gunner Sylvain Wiltord got their equaliser with a dodgy penalty but they went down to late free kick. Thierry came on at half time and was kept out by some fine defending. Coach Raymond Domenech hasn't recalled Robert Pires, but Nic_Anelka and Fabien Barthez were both back in the side. Henry says France are on the right track, despite the loss which he puts down to an inspired goalkeeping display (won't have to worry about playing against good keepers in the summer then, Thierry?).

Gilberto: Brazil showed that they can cope with the cold, although apparently it forced them to play a different game to normal, and after the match there were some amusing comments from the players about how they've never known cold like it. Fat lazy Real Madrid striker Ronaldo warmed up for Highbury next week with a jammy dodgy goal in a 1-0 win over Russia, when Robert Carlos' 35 yard shot ricocheted in off Ronaldo's arm but was allowed to stand. Gilberto came off the bench, but I'm not sure when.

Philippe Senderos, Johan Djourou. The Swiss won their first match in Scotland, at the 7th attempt, ther 3-1 scoreline a fair reflection of the play and of why Big Phil (and hopefully Johan) is going to Germany in the summer rather than the Scots. Extraordinarily, Scotland have now not won a friendly at Hampden for over 10 years. Djourou came off the bench a few minutes after half time, for his full international debut. Phil started, and came off in the 73rd minute. Senderos offered some consolation to the Scots afterwards, saying that "they try to play football".

Jens Lehmann: played between the sticks for Germany in Italy last night, Oliver Kahn not being fit yet, but he might wish that he hadn't. The World Cup hosts were smashed 4-1. Reports suggest that Jens had an off night, so his hopes of playing in the summer may have suffered a bit of a setback. But he was exposed quite badly by a Germany defence in which Chelsea's Robert Huth looked out of his depth. Jørn in Oslo watched the game and says, "...can't say that Jens did anything wrong, made a great save to almost stop the first goal, but the Italians were first to the rebound. Germany's defence was awful, both individually and collectively, and Jens was left very exposed on a number of occasions and shouldn't be blamed for the result." So anyway, the good news is that Arsenal's defence is still better than Germany's. If only we got to play them instead of the Boltons and Blackburns.

Mart Poom: got to play a game of football last night, but Estonia were beaten in snowy Belfast by a 2nd minute Northern Ireland goal. Mart made a few saves.

If anyone saw the games and can comment further on the Arsenal players' performances, we'd be glad to add your comments to the above. Please send em in.