Nov 05
Wenger maintains faith in Gibbs
Arsene Wenger has come out and said he has faith in Keiran Gibbs’ ability to play a crucial part in Arsenal’s push for Premier League and Champions League glory.
The young Englishman is set to play a prominent role in the first team over the coming weeks as regular left-back Gael Clichy is facing a spell on the sidelines due to a lower back injury.
Wenger has admitted he was looking to rotate Gibbs and Clichy over the coming months as his Arsenal side continue to mount a challenge for both the Premier League title and their elusive first Champions League triumph.
He said the 20-year-old “would have played” in November whether or not Clichy had got injured. However, Gibbs will be playing more games as originally intended as the Frenchman will be out for between one and two months.
“I was very comfortable 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,” said Wenger.
“I have no doubt about the quality of Gibbs, and I have said that many times.”
Gibbs recently admitted that he had struggled to get to grips with the mistake he made in last season’s Champions League semi-final defeat against Manchester United.
The young defender slipped in the early minutes to allow Ji-Sung Park to score a crucial away goal and he openly confessed this mistake had haunted him in the immediate aftermath of the game.
What do you think of Gibbs? Is he a capable understudy to Clichy or should Armand Traore be given another chance?
Leave your views in the comments section below!
didnt he slip AGAIN that led to the goal we conceded yesterday the guy is a liabilty
Didn’t Clichy allow SWP free passes when we played City? The guy Clichy is a liability. His crossing is terrible and runs and runs with no good return. Sell Clichy.
i agree clichy has been very poor this season, and have been screaming for him to replaced by gibbs, don’t think we should sell clichy though, but i think gibbs should be our first choice left back seen as his performance last night was better than anything clichy has produced in the last two seasons
“very” poor? not really
he was poor last season, this year hes been decent. Not as good as he can be, but not bad overall
both of them are class players. the two before me are idiots. support boys, support.
lol..well said
I’m totally agree!! C’mon Gooners!!
IMO Tony Adams was right when he said Gibbs ahd been outmuscled a few times -
Not just for the goal.
In fact where the rest of the team seems miles better than 2007-08(even at GK, Ithink, just), when they could have romped the league, all the full backs seem to have gone backwards a bit
both clichy and gibbs are world class players. keep in mind how young gibbs is. he was thrust into the champions league and deep stages of the premier league last season and performed wonderfully. increased playtime will only increase his quality and strength. i look forward to him eventually winning the starting left back position not only for arsenal, but for england as well. CMON YOU GUNNERS
you are forgetting Armand Traore!
i dont why people are calling it as a mistake you cannot do anything about a slip its not a mistake its just bad luck tell me one player who has not slipped in his life it wasnt that he gave ball away to park ji sung no body can do anything about a slip
exactly
Agree! You can’t do anything about a slip, everyone can slip on the pitch. I hardly thik Gibbs ment to do it against United, but…things happen. He has come back strong from it IMHO and that shows great character.
He’s a very good player but I wouldn’t call for Clichy to be sold, he’s still a class player even if he hasn’t reached his best again yet. However this matchtime Gibbs will be getting, will only benefit his development. I sort of feel sorry for Traore, a decent player but I never liked him defensivly. Going forward he is pretty good and can cross the ball (as can Gibbs…rarely Clichy though). And the AML position is pretty packed with better options than Traoré as well.
just don’t know why Traore is not another option…
Traore is now even behind Gibbs in pecking orders, what a shame really. he’s a very good full-back but just doesn’t know how to defend, if he can improve his positional sense he would be a world-class full back in the future. Gibbs’ future also is very bright despite a couple of mistakes. Clichy has been below-par for quite a while but still I would take him over our other 2 young fullbacks anyday simply because he is still a world-class and an experienced player as well. Having too many good full-back really is a dilemma for us.
I would like to see more of Traore..
Traore himself has admitted that he needs better positional sense at right back. At the moment even he says that it’s 50/50 between LB and LW, he acknowledges that his positioning is not good enough for LB and he needs to work on his right foot to make a mark on the LW.
Listen up , we are fortunate to have young Gibbs. Adams is right he can be out muscles because of his age/size. does that mean he cannot improve? No it means he has to use his quickness and positional sense to gert leverage on bigger palyers coming his way. I have no doubt he will do this because the boss will show him how. Traore is good, and the talk of getting rid of clichy is pure rubbish. He is playing well. That said I think Gibbs will one day take Cashley’s position from him on the national team. I am not at all fazed by the run of injuries, if I was a Scouser, sure, but we have as much depth and quality as any team right now and it is a credit to Wenger and his staff that they are so deep. We no longer miss Flamini, Hleb, guess what they miss us, and they would have progressed more here then were they went…..
poor young gibbson :_)
Traores been injured folks… theres no way he’s behind Gibbs.
Tugz, it’s actually pretty clear that Gibbs is ahead of Traore. Before Traore got injured, Gibbs was getting the minutes in and being on the bench. There is a reason why Traore almost went on loan but there were no such talks regarding Gibbs. Armand is simply not as good and he will have to take major leaps defensively if he is to ever become as good. Kieran still has a big space to improve and if he plays well this season then he might just get the nod ahead of Bridge for the 2nd LB slot. But he is very far behind Ashley Cole at the moment and talks about him overtaking him would be wide of the mark and very premature
wow rvp playa of the month.
fabregas next month
arshavin the month after
song the month after next