International Roundup: How Arsenal's 9 National Team Stars Fared This Week

Arsenal have been out catching some rays during their warm weather training in Dubai during the international break, though nine members of the first team were

Arsenal have been out catching some rays during their warm weather training in Dubai during the international break, though nine members of the first team were busy plying their trade for their respective nations across the planet, with action in the African Cup of Nations, Euro 2020 qualifiers, and U21 competition.

Here's a quick overview of how they got on.

Gabon (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang)

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Arsenal's leading scorer in all competitions this season headed out to Burundi for a crucial match in his country's quest for African Cup of Nations Qualification.

They drew 1-1, thus failing to qualifying this year in a bitterly disappointing result for the nation. 

As a result, Arsenal fans are buzzing that he'll get a rest in June while Burundi qualified for their first ever AFCON (with Saido Berahino in their team, believe it or not).

Not a great week away for Aubameyang, who only managed one goal throughout the whole AFCON qualifying campaign.

Armenia (Henrikh Mkhitaryan)

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Repeatedly voted the best footballer in his native Armenia, Mkhitaryan once again found the back of the net for his country, however, couldn't prevent his side slipping to a 2-1 defeat to Bosnia & Herzegovina on Saturday.

His goal from the spot counted for nothing as they lost their Euro 2020 qualifying opener, and now need three points against Finland on Tuesday as much as Armenia need some more half-decent footballers.

Nigeria (Alex Iwobi)

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Despite some indifferent form for his club, Iwobi continuously gets the opportunity to don the brilliant Nigeria kit as they looked to finish top of their AFCON qualifying group, despite having already sealed their spot in the summer's tournament.

A 3-1 win over minnows Seychelles, in which Iwobi started, did just that. The Super Eagles followed that up with a 1-0 win over Egypt.

Wales (Aaron Ramsey)

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Wales began their Euro 2020 qualifying campaign hoping to emulate the remarkable exploits of Chris Coleman's side in France for the 2016 edition.

Ramsey played a key role in that adventure as the Dragons reached the semi final stage and would have surely been hoping to get off on the right foot as Wales faced Slovakia in their opening match of the qualifying campaign.

Unfortunately, Ramsey was injured and didn't feature. He didn't even play in the dire 1-0 friendly win over Trinidad & Tobago before that. Probably wishes he had gone to Dubai for some R&R.

Switzerland (Granit Xhaka & Stephan Lichtsteiner)

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The duo are regular features for their national side with 174 caps between them for Switzerland, and both featured heavily during last year's World Cup.

The Rossocrociati's Euro 2020 qualifying campaign got off to a decent start with a 2-0 over Georgia, in which the Gunners' pair played the full 90 minutes. However, they incredibly blew a 3-0 lead against Denmark in their next game (which they had been leading 3-0 until the 84th minute).

France U21s (Matteo Guendouzi)

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Matteo Guendouzi made the short journey back to his native France with the U21s to take on their Danish counterparts.

Les Bleus fell to a 1-0 defeat and Guendouzi played 45 minutes as he begins taking the steps towards becoming a full time international. 

Egypt (Mohamed Elneny)

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One of Unai Emery's forgotten men surely relished the international break as he actually got a chance to touch a football.

He started in a 1-1 draw against Niger in his country's AFCON qualifier with Egypt finishing the group in second behind Tunisia, but failed to help the Pharaohs get anything from their match against Nigeria.

Greece (Sokratis Papastathopoulos)

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It must say a lot about a team's defensive stability when their best defender can't get a game for his country. Well, such is the case for Arsenal's Sokratis, who was an unused substitute as the Euro 2004 winners beat Liechtenstein 2-0 in their Euro 2020 opener.

He did however feature in the Ethniki's 2-2 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece now sit second in their qualifying group behind Italy.