Arsenal players link up with England ahead of final pre-World Cup friendly

Arsenal’s England internationals have finally linked up with Thomas Tuchel’s squad, with a tight turnaround now for the country’s final pre-World Cup friendly.

After a bit of a break following the Champions League final, Arsenal’s England internationals Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze, and Noni Madueke all linked up with Thomas Tuchel’s squad at their base in West Palm Beach on Saturday evening.

England Football report that now that the quartet have arrived, the entire England squad are present and accounted for, meaning they can take their World Cup squad photo on Sunday afternoon.

Before that, the Arsenal players should be involved in their first training session with England on Sunday morning, before some commercial activities in the afternoon.

There will then be a fairly tight turnaround before England’s final pre-World Cup friendly on Wednesday, with Tuchel’s side facing Costa Rica.

England scraped through with a rather uninspiring 1-0 victory over New Zealand in their opening friendly on Saturday, so Tuchel will be hoping the Arsenal boys can help to inspire his squad to pick up momentum now.

England will then face Croatia (June 17th), Ghana (June 23rd), and Panama (June 27th) in the group stage of the World Cup, so there’s only another 10 days to prepare for the final tournament.

Saka and Rice are likely to be starters for England at that tournament, with Madueke in line to play a rotation role behind Saka.

Eze is also probably set to start the tournament as a rotation option, but perhaps he has the best chance of breaking into the starting lineup with some good performances.

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