Clichy injury may put pressure on Gibbs – Arsenal’s Wenger

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes the injury to Gael Clichy may put pressure on young defender Kieran Gibbs.

French left-back Clichy has been ruled out for at least a few weeks with stress fractures in his back meaning 20-year old Gibbs will have to step into his position starting tonight in the Champions League against AZ Alkmaar.

The fact that Gibbs is so inexperienced may mean he has a lot of pressure heaped on him during Clichy’s absence which slightly concerns Wenger.

"We have lost Gael Clichy with a back injury, which was not expected. It looks like he could be out for a while,” Wenger said.

"We fear a stress fracture of the back, and we will know more about that later, but if that is the case, he will be out for a few weeks.

"I still think it is a blow because I was very comfortable now to have a solution to rest Clichy when it was needed and play Gibbs.

"Now suddenly there is a huge stress on Gibbs to play in every game.”

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Comments (4)

Traore is injured

Yeah there's always Traore and Silvestre (who played there one or two games last season) as well as obviously Gibbbs. I'm pretty confident Gibbs can do the job admirably anyways.

eboue or sagna could play left back too with the other taking right back