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.

“There was a question mark about whether Gael would last the season,” he said. “He had three operations on his metatarsal and he had already undergone hernia surgery. We were concerned over whether he would be able to absorb so many games.

“The big victory for me this year is not that he has played well but that he could absorb a complete season at the top level without any rest. But there’s still more in there. When the guy comes out with the game he produced at Old Trafford last month, you think: ‘There’s more in the locker.’

“That was a top class performance, not only football-wise but in character. He showed he was revolted by defeat and when we were down 2-1, he was the one who really moved forward. I am very positive with Gael because he loves the game and, every day after training, he’s out there practicising to improve.”

Clichy is one of just a handful of Arsenal regulars expected to be deployed at Pride Park tonight, in a game which has long since lost its significance. Wenger is expected to hand a first Premier League start to Lukasz Fabianski, the Poland goalkeeper, as he weighs up whether to sign a replacement for Jens Lehmann this summer. Denilson and Nicklas Bendtner could also be in line for starts against Derby, who need four points to surpass Sunderland’s all-time record points low of 15.

DERBY (likely, 4-4-2): Carroll, Todd, Stubbs, Leacock, McEveley, Mears, Ghaly, Savage, Sterjovski, Villa, Miller.

ARSENAL (likely, 4-4-2): Fabianski, Toure, Song, Gallas, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas, Gilberto, Denilson, Bendtner, van Persie.