Gael force powers Arsenal’s challenge

IT is a measure of a footballer’s calibre that his age becomes an irrelevance. Gael Clichy may still look no older than his meagre 22 years, but in a tumultuous season for Arsenal, he has performed with the unruffled expertise of a veteran.

The Frenchman has become a byword for consistency at the Emirates stadium. No player at the north London club can match his 46 appearances in all competitions this season and it is indicative of his status that Arsene Wenger feels unable to rest him even at Derby County, by some distance the Premier League’s worst ever side, tonight.

Wenger is one of Clichy’s most fervent admirers and still cannot fathom how a player who has been resolutely impressive since making his debut in the ‘invincible’ season of 2003-04 can still be waiting for his first full French cap. Yet even he has been surprised at the durability of a player with such a chequered record of fitness problems.