Gael Clichy, along with Sagna and Diaby have escaped a possible long term injury of the type suffered by Van Persie and Alex Hleb, as France have failed to procure their services for the Euro Finals this summer.
There was a concern that France might inflict international football on Clichy after he was put into the initial squad, but France have decided to inflict more football on Eric Abidal and Patrice Evra instead. The fact that Sagna and Clichy were the full backs of the year in the EPL doesn’t count a gram in France, thank goodness.
This is great news for Arsenal who will have to play a Champions League qualifier sometime around August 16. Anyone who has played in the Euro games will be struggling to be fully fit by then – which is something of a horror given the importance of this game. Certainly anyone from a team that gets into the semi-finals is more than likely to not make it back by then.
Thus Arsenal might be without Fabregas, Galls, and Van Persie, Senderos and Djourou
But we will have
Sagna, Toure, Song and Clichy across the back four, Hleb or his replacement, Rosicky, Walcott, Eboue, Denilson and Gilberto to pick from in the middle, and Adebayour plus Vela and Bendtner up front: a much stronger team than we might have feared.
Given that the Swiss are likely to go out fairly early on, that should give us some backup in the middle of defence, and there is less concern about goalkeepers who need less recovery time.
