What Happened to Arsenal's 'British Core'?

Arsenal v Everton - Premier League
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#4 Kieran Gibbs

West Bromwich Albion v Tottenham Hotspur - Premier League - The Hawthorns
West Bromwich Albion v Tottenham Hotspur - Premier League - The Hawthorns

Brought up through the Arsenal youth ranks, Kieran Gibbs spent a total of 13 years at the club. The English left-back was one of the oldest of the British core at the age of 22 when signing on for another five years at the club before leaving at the start of the 2017/18 season to join West Bromwich Albion.

Gibbs too was hit with injury after injury during his career, sustaining eight separate injuries since signing his last Arsenal contract. Although he was highly injury prone through his time at Arsenal, Gibbs did manage to earn and maintain a starting berth at left back for the club after the departure of Gael Clichy in 2011, even earning himself 10 appearances for the national team in the process.

Earning over 100 caps for Arsenal, Gibbs began to fall out of favour with the management as his consistency was called into question as he became increasingly error-prone. This saw the rise of Nacho Monreal for the club who took over the starting position during the 2013/14 season.

Kieran Gibbs was let go by the club to join West Brom for £7m at the start of the 2017/18 season, and while playing in 33 premier league games for them, they could not avoid relegation and are now down in the Championship.

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