Wenger puts faith in Clichy

14 April 2012

Ashley Cole will miss tonight's match against Crystal Palace after reporting ill with a high temperature.

Arsenal's England full-back was unable to train yesterday and confined to bed.

His place will be taken by 19-year-old Gael Clichy, who is also likely to keep his place against Sheffield United in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Arsenal, who are 14 points behind Chelsea, will also be without Fredrik Ljungberg.

The Swede is back in training after an ankle injury but manager Arsene Wenger does not want to risk him, with a tricky Cup match followed by a Champions League tie in Germany against Bayern Munich next Tuesday.

With Ljungberg on the sidelines, Wenger will use Robert Pires and Jose Reyes as his wide players in midfield, while Edu, who made an impressive return in the 3-1 win at Aston Villa after more than two months out through injury, will partner Patrick Vieira in central midfield.

Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp will form the

strike force, while Kolo Toure returns to central defence to partner Pascal Cygan. Sol Campbell is injured.

Wenger, whose side drew 1-1 draw at Palace earlier in the season, said: "We struggled at their place. If I win the league, I will vote for Iain Dowie as manager of the year. He has made miracles at Palace. First, to get them up and now they are in a situation where they can still stay in the Premiership."

Meanwhile, Henry says he would not allow himself to be caught-up in a Cole-style tapping-up controversy.

The Arsenal striker insists he knows nothing about an alleged meeting between his team-mate and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and agent Pini Zahavi at a London hotel last month.

But Henry, who has twice been targeted by Chelsea in official approaches, is aware of the regulations which cover transfer negotiations.

He said: "The rules are the rules. If something like that happened to me I would say 'will you speak to whoever is in charge at Arsenal and then maybe we can talk'.

"But I have never had any approach or anything like that. We want Ashley to stay. I don't know the whole story and I don't want to know."

Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein admitted in December 2003 that he was approached by Chelsea for Henry twice that year but rejected their interest.

The figure rumoured to be on offer was £50million, but the club said Henry was not for sale at any price.

Despite Chelsea's supremacy in the Premiership, Henry hopes Arsenal's stance remains the same. His contract expires in 2007, when he will be 29, but he wants to stay for longer.

Henry said: "I would like to stay here but it is up to the people involved. If it was only up to me, no problem, but we all know how it is in football.

"If you stop scoring goals, someone young can come along and kick you out. But I have no desire to play abroad. I'm passionate my team."

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Wenger puts faith in Clichy

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