The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations group stage schedule has been made public, emphasising the number of Arsenal games that Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are expected to miss.
Didier Drogba, John Obi Mikel, Sadio Mane, and Achraf Hakimi were present to lend a hand at the official draw ceremony on Thursday. A noteworthy matchup to look forward to in the new year is the matchup between the defending champions Senegal and Cameroon.
Ivory Coast will have the honor of opening the competition on January 13 against Guinea-Bissau as the host country. If they have good luck with the draw, they will almost certainly go to the final on February 11. Managers around Europe will now have to deal with key players missing part of the season because to the time.
For Mikel Arteta and those associated with the Arsenal, attention is on Group B, which features Egypt and Ghana as its top two teams. Naturally, this indicates that Elneny and Partey will meet on January 18, 2024, assuming they are chosen by their respective countries.
Given that both teams are predicted to be too strong for Cape Verde and Mozambique, the head-to-head matchup might very well determine who wins the group and receives a “kinder” round of 16 matchup. However, there is a safety net in that the top four teams in third place also advance.
Partey and Elneny won’t be available for selection for Arsenal if they are on their way to the Ivory Coast at the start of 2024. How many games are they scheduled to miss, though? That hinges entirely on how far each country’s different teams advance and how the Gunners perform in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Egypt and Ghana play their initial group matches on January 14 against Mozambique and Cape Verde, respectively. As a result, they are automatically disqualified from Arsenal’s scheduled January 13 London derby against Crystal Palace.
Your schedule for a 34th edition #TotalEnergiesAFCON. 🗓️ pic.twitter.com/2bshA7ZsuM
— CAF (@CAF_Online) October 13, 2023
Now that the dates for the last Group B matches on January 22 have been set, there is a chance that Partey and Elneny may only miss one Premier League match. This is due to the fact that the winter break, which will be back between January 14 and 20, can help as there won’t be any top-flight English football matches played during this time.
Even if their countries advance to the first knockout round, which would require two last-16 losses, the aforementioned midfielders might be back in time for Arsenal’s trip to the City Ground on January 30. Arsenal’s next Premier League match after facing Palace is away at Nottingham Forest.
What other Arsenal games Partey and Elneny would miss ultimately depends on the dates on which they would have to report for international duty. Having said that, if the Gunners advance, they should be available for the FA Cup third-round match on the weekend of Saturday, January 6, 2024, and the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinal on the week beginning January 8, 2024.
The second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final is scheduled for the week of January 21, 2024, which coincides with the conclusion of Group B at AFCON. Even if either nation is eliminated, this effectively eliminates the two midfielders from contention, especially considering how spectacularly a similar situation backfired on Arteta two years ago.
So far, the only Arsenal match that Partey and Elneny are guaranteed to miss (if chosen) is the one at home against Crystal Palace. And it won’t be obvious whether the number of games rises or keeps the same for another couple of months.
