Gareth Southgate does not believe Jordan Henderson will be jeered when he next turns out for England as he reiterated his support of the LGBT+ community after naming the Al-Ettifaq midfielder in his latest squad. Henderson was included in the 26-man pool for the upcoming games with Ukraine and Scotland as England manager Southgate stuck with the 33-year-old after his move to the Saudi Pro League. The transfer proved to be a controversial one, with Henderson leaving Liverpool for Saudi Arabia despite having been a keen and vocal supporter of the Premier League’s ‘Rainbow Laces’ campaign and after previously working alongside the Merseyside club’s official LGBT+ fan group in the past. The England boss has no concerns that there will be any adverse reaction next time he pulls on the shirt. “We are picking a team for football reasons,” he said. “There are lots of different ownership models of clubs in England, there are lots of players playing in countries where there are different religious beliefs, I don’t really know why a player would receive an adverse reaction because of where he plays his football. “That of course is a personal choice. “It is really difficult to… I’m a bit lost really with some of the questioning because you walk in to try and talk about a squad announcement based on football decisions and increasingly we are navigating such complex political aspects that I’m not really trained to do. “Forgive me if I am stumbling a little bit but I find it a really difficult scenario to try and get right. “We’ll do the best we can and we try to make decisions for any number of reasons but I have to pick a squad based on the players that I think can get us qualified for a European Championship and that’s why we’ve picked the players we have.” England had previously been criticised by LGBT+ groups after they opted against wearing the ‘One Love’ armband during the World Cup in Qatar last year. Southgate, though, reaffirmed his commitment to inclusivity, adding: “We are supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. “A large number of the team and staff have either relatives or friends from that community. “It is something that we are very conscious of and a situation we are very conscious of. “We have tried to be very supportive but I also accept members of the community felt let down around the World Cup. These are all very complex situations that we are trying to do our best to navigate Gareth Southgate “You have to live your life as you see fit. I can only talk on a personal level and my feelings of what the team represents. “I always try to do things with my life that I believe are inclusive, I try to be accepting of all cultures and understanding of everybody’s different positions and there might be a feeling we haven’t done enough in certain situations. “If that is the case, then we have to accept that criticism. But it is not intentional that we would let down any of our fans. “These are all very complex situations that we are trying to do our best to navigate.” Former Manchester United captain Harry Maguire and Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips were both included in Southgate’s squad despite being yet to play a minute of club football this season. Under-21 European Championship winner Levi Colwill received his maiden formal call-up and uncapped Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah has also got the nod for the first time, although there is no place for Chelsea forward Raheem Sterling despite a strong start to the campaign. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Man Utd look for new arrivals on deadline day and Liverpool aim to keep Salah The body still feels good enough – Scotland prop WP Nel has no plans to retire Welsh para table tennis pair could face off for ‘golden ticket’ to Paris

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It probably wasn’t Mikel Arteta’s pre-match team talk, but it could have been. “Forget brinksmanship. Group stage drama is for amateurs and also-rans. Just go out, do the job and wait until the Champions League’s proper action starts in February.” Perhaps it would have been emphasised with lots of hand gesticulations, had he taken that approach. After the week’s earlier drama involving fellow Premier League teams, Arsenal fans might have been feeling a little left out in that regard, but they shouldn’t be. Their side is far more complete, far further along the team-building process and far more prepared to go far in a major European competition. It’s probably also fair to note they have a far more routine group, certainly than Newcastle at least. This 6-0 drubbing of a distinctly second-rate RC Lens showed as much, as does the far more important fact of Arsenal qualifying for the last 16 with a game to spare. Sevilla collapsing to lose to PSV in the earlier kick-off felt as though it might give more of a contest at the Emirates, perhaps create more of a hint of jeopardy, but in truth it was never the case. A win still guaranteed top spot and in any case, there was more than a mere gulf between these sides. The early knockings told the truth of the expectation of a home win: Lens fans made the noise but Arsenal had all the control. Takehiro Tomiyasu roused the crowd with a blockbusting run down the flank to nowhere; Kai Havertz dropped a header wide after the Japanese international crossed deep. If he might have done better that time, Havertz did so only a minute later: following a cross into the area, the German got enough of a touch on Gabriel Jesus’s clever header into the six-yard box to prod past Brice Samba and over the line. And that was effectively that. A tempting line to pursue would be of the goal settling the nerves, but none had been on display. Arsenal were assured and competent throughout, clear by 25 minutes and able to bask in a quite literal glow as Lens fans lit a succession of bright red smoke flares at that point, with at least one hurled upwards into a home fans’ section above them. Gunners fans responded with a verbal volley of their own, informing the visitors they appeared to be rather similar in quality to some near north London neighbours, and suggesting they were not particularly good… in rather more rudimentary terms. If the former quip bore no semblance to reality this season, the latter was unfortunately accurate. Lens were a mile off the quality, intensity and even strength of their hosts in the first half, timid and reactive, absurdly out of their depth despite mathematics suggesting they still had a shot at a last-16 place. They don’t any more. The match, the points and Arsenal’s own qualification was settled in the space of six minutes. Bukayo Saka bundled through a couple of challenges, Jesus picked up the loose ball, dummied the last defender and buried a low finish for his fourth of the group stage. Injury and inconsistency may have made him a bystander in the early Golden Boot standings domestically, but he has a goal per game for the Gunners in Europe – the type of contribution they’ll need in the latter stages if Arteta believes they can go deep. Just two minutes later, two became three as Gabriel Martinelli darted infield, curled in a shot and Samba this time parried dreadfully into the hip of Saka, the ball bouncing straight in. The least-technically demanding goal of his career it might have been, but Saka was full of running infield and, not for the first time, made his own luck with his determination to continually be in dangerous areas. It was left to Martinelli, then, to complete the set of front-line goalscorers, perfecting his earlier trick to give Samba no chance and find the far corner for four. As for Lens, they carried no threat. They offered nothing: neither diligent, compact defensive structure to frustrate and bide their time, nor committing numbers and having a plan to counterattack with regularity. Elye Wahi, a talented young striker who surely has a much bigger team in his near future, made a handful of clever runs but the closest Lens came to scoring was his left-footed strike across goal, easily saved. Other than that, their best moments were Wahi skinning William Saliba multiple times down the left flank and Kevin Danso thinking about a long-range shot, before opting not to. It was genuinely that poor from them. Even Facundo Medina hitting the post just before the interval was an irrelevance, with the offside flag up. At the other end, Samba saved only one shot all half – and it still resulted in a goal as that was his palm-out into the onrushing Saka. Yet more torment for the Ligue 1 side was to come before the brief sanctuary of half time, with Martin Odegaard casually thumping in an injury-time volley: unmarked, unchallenged and unstopped. To their credit, or perhaps to keep warm on a freezing London night, Lens fans remained bouncing and noisy. With Arteta’s team stepping off the gas, job done well before Jorginho’s late penalty, their team also fared better in the second 45 but all they have to play for now is third and the Europa League. For Arsenal, every box has been ticked in the group stage: over-excitement, wake-up call, improvement and professionalism. And, they are through, which is really all that matters. Several seasons of progression has carried Arsenal into challenger territory, and with that comes an understanding that scorelines like this simply don’t matter, at this time of year. It is two and three months from now when everything will be on the line, when the world will be watching and when performances as well as results can truly drive expectations of success. What tonight’s result ensured was that they’ll be there – and that few will want to draw them in the knockouts. Read More A genuine dream – Mikel Arteta loved Arsenal’s rout of Lens in Champions League Arsenal through to last 16 as Manchester United squander lead again Champions League: What do Man United, Arsenal and Newcastle need to reach last 16? Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta believes he still has something to prove in Europe Arsenal vs Lens LIVE: Champions League result and reaction Football rumours: Juventus eyeing swoop for Thomas Partey

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