Kieran Gibbs started on the left-side of defence for England against Italy during a 1-1 friendly in Turin, where he showed a decent performance that will please fans of club and country.
Gibbs has struggled with injury problems for a while and hasn’t featured regularly for Arsenal recently. However, he could now be in-line to start against Liverpool at the weekend after a positive display against an Italian outfit full of fresh and exciting players.
WhoScored Rating: 6.5
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Kieran Gibbs had just over 6% of the games possession during the 87 minutes that he played, before being replaced by Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand for the final minutes.
During the game he made one tackle and won one aerial duel, whilst he was also an asset going forward down the left-hand side. He had one shot in the game, where he really should have scored- which will now be something he is looking to improve upon.
In fact, his match rating perhaps should have been a bit higher in a game where the England squad performed rather admirably to extend their unbeaten run since the World Cup.
Gibbs looks on good course to make the first-team left-back spot his own following the retirement of Ashley Cole prior to last summer’s tournament in Brazil as he is now threatening Leighton Baines ahead of the European Championships in 2016.