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.
Well thats good for us I guess. We’ll have 2 of our most important players fully fit, healthy, and rested for the start of the campaign. However, I do feel for Gael and Sagna as I feel both readily deserved a call from the France manager. Obviously the two best left and right backs in the premiership and arguably the world. What a pitty, oh well France lose out on two very talented players. I don’t mean to criticize the manager and I’m also a France fan (go figure) but come on, Clichy’s and Sagna’s call ups should have been an obvious one given their performance this season. Ahh well…such is life and such will be the Gooner’s strength next season!