There are a lot of great things about the World Cup and one of them is seeing club teammates battle it out against each other while competing for their respective countries.
Let’s take a look at some potential matchups we might see between Arsenal players.
Group Stage
It doesn’t look like we’ll see any current Gunners going at it during the group stage. The closest thing could be a pair of matchups featuring loan players.
England, likely featuring Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, is grouped with Costa Rica and Joel Campbell, who is currently playing for Olympiacos on loan from Arsenal.
Oxlade-Chamberlain has appeared in 14 international contests for England but coach Roy Hodgson isn’t revealing his final roster until May 12, according to a recent article posted at Betfair. We already know that Theo Walcott is out with a knee injury and Jack Wilshere could also miss the tournament with a foot injury.
Kieran Gibbs has played in two friendly matches for England and starred in U19, U20 and U21 play but remains an outside shot to make the World Cup squad.
Campbell hilariously made headlines recently when he bought 100 packs of World Cup player stickers hoping to find one of himself but came up empty.
Another possibility is Belgium’s Thomas Vermaelen, who despite his lack of playing time for Arsenal this season appears to still be a lock for the World Cup, squaring off against Park Chu-Young, who is playing for Watford on loan from Arsenal. Chu-Young scored a goal in the 2010 World Cup and had another two goals in the 2012 Olympics. Like Vermaelen, Chu-Young looks like a lock to make the Korea Republic squad.
In a current-meets-former-Arsenal matchup, Lukas Podalski and Per Mertesacker are expected to suit up for Germany with Mesut Ozil also a possibility. In the group stage, Germany will face Ghana and Emmanuel Frimpong, who was dealt by Arsenal earlier this season but has a solid chance of making the Ghana team, according to a recent report by the Daily Mail.
Round of 16
The only Round of 16 Arsenal battles could happen in the Group H vs. Group G matchup. If either Belgium or Korea Republic advances out of the group that also features Russia and Algeria, they could square off against either Germany or Ghana. Germany is considered a lock to advance while Ghana will have to play well to survive in a group featuring USA and Portugal.
Quarterfinals
This is where things could get interesting. If Spain (grouped with Netherlands, Chile and Australia) advances out of group play and wins in the Round of 16, they could potentially face either England, Costa Rica or Japan in the quarterfinals.
Santi Cazorla, Nacho Monreal and Mikel Arteta are all World Cup possibilities for Spain.
Another quarterfinal possibility is France facing either Germany, Ghana, Belgium or Korea Republic. Olivier Giroud, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny and Mathieu Flamini could all take the pitch for the French and even Abou Diaby has a long shot chance of making the team.
Semifinal
If Spain advances to the semifinals they could face either England, France, Germany, Ghana, Belgium or Korea Republic. The likelihood of the latter three teams advancing this far is nil, but Spain vs. England, Spain vs. France or Spain vs. Germany all remain a very real possibility here and would all be ones to watch.
Final
Any matchup is possible. Two teams advance from each group with the first-place team being sent to one side of the bracket and the second-place team to the other. So depending on which side of the bracket teams are placed, any combination is possible for the final, even for teams coming from the same pool.
What are the chances of seeing some Arsenal players do battle deep in the tournament? Pretty good. Most oddsmakers have Germany, Spain, Belgium and France as the third, fourth, fifth and sixth favorite teams, respectively, to win it all while England comes in at ninth.
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