England international Gibbs could leave Arsenal

After a very impressive international debut, Arsenal youngster Kieran Gibbs has found himself in Fabio Capello's England squad once again.

The left-back played the entire second half of England's 2-1 win over Hungary earlier this month, and will be joined once again by Arsenal team-mate Theo Walcott.

However, Gibbs has not yet worked a way into the Arsenal team, failing to make a single appearance so far this season. The 20-year-old still finds himself second choice to Gaël Clichy, despite indifferent form from the Frenchman for over two years now.

Wenger insists Gibbs will get games for the Gunners this season, but he will be losing a very talented player if he does not give him the games he deserves. If Gibbs becomes an established England international, but Wenger fails to see he's better than Clichy, then Gibbs will have every right to seek a move elsewhere.

The boss insists, however, that he has not wanted to rush Gibbs back due to injury worries, which is strange since he also believes Gibbs is fine to be playing for England.

He said: "We have played two games and Kieran had some niggling problems with his groin that we tried to heal completely before we throw him in.

"He can play left midfield or he can play left-back. He will have his amount of games for me, no doubt about that. I hope he will be in the squad [to face Bulgaria and Switzerland] because he has the quality to be in it."

The Gibbs situation comes in stark contrast to that of Jack Wilshere, who got less than ten minutes from Capello against Hungary, and who has now been dropped back to under-21 level, despite featuring regularly for Arsenal so far this year.

Wenger admits he was surprised at the decision to drop Wilshere from the England squad, and insists the youngster will remain very much a part of his plans for the Arsenal first-team this season.

He said: "For me he has done well. I feel it was a little surprise [not to pick him] because he had brought him on and maybe would even have started him in the friendly so he must have had a good impression of him.

"But England have many midfielders now - Lampard, Gerrard, Barry, Milner - and they tried to recall Scholes.

"He is 18, Jack, so he is very, very young so you can understand he still needs some experience in the under 21s.

"Maybe this week he will be a bit down but I trust him because I play him in the big games. I played him at Liverpool and I played him last Saturday but he is still at an age where you have to be more careful."

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