Tim Collings' Arsenal Special: Gunners have long history as cosmopolitan club

All Arsenal eyes will this weekend focus on three key World Cup qualifying matches before checking on the results of a long list of international friendly fixtures.

The first concern will be for possible injuries, the second for the outcome; and the deepest brows will furrow over the fixture at Croke Park, Dublin, where the Republic of Ireland meet France in the first of a two-legged play-off for a place in South Africa next summer.

Time was when an Ireland-France clash would have involved a handful of Arsenal players pulling on a green national jersey, whipping up a frenzy of skill and passion, and surging into waves of attacks against Les Bleus. Men like Liam Brady, David O'Leary, Niall Quinn and Frank Stapleton all graced both the red-and-white of Arsenal and the green of Ireland at a time when they, and not the French, were considered to be exotic imports.

A word, too, for less bill-topping stars who were called up by the Irish - Arsenal men like John Devine, Eddie McGoldrick and Terry 'Henry' Mancini - at various times in those days when an appearance at the old Lansdowne Road ground resulted in mud, blood and black-and-white photographs for posterity.

Now, with three Gunners in the French squad, and none representing Ireland, the fixture is very, very different, but has the added intrigue of 'twinkle-toes' himself, Brady, the current youth academy director at Arsenal, acting as assistant manager for the Ireland team and jousting verbally with his friend, Arsenal's French manager Arsene Wenger, about the prospects for the game. Vive la difference!

This time, there are 15 Arsenal MEN on national duty of one sort or another. Of those, only Kieran Gibbs is representing England, at under-21 level and both Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere, English players of high potential, are injured. William Gallas, Abou Diaby and Bacary Sagna are all in Dublin, Andrey Arshavin will captain Russia in the first leg of their play-off against Slovenia in Moscow and Alex Song is with Cameroon, who require a win to confirm their qualification, for Saturday's clash with Morocco in Casablanca.

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The rest are spread around Europe, but, notably, Arsenal have nobody playing for England or Brazil in Qatar and only Aaron Ramsey representing the club in the Wales v Scotland friendly at the Cardiff City Stadium.

It does make you think. In this modern age of the cosmopolitan Premier League, Arsenal, of course, were the first team in English football history to field an entire squad of 'foreign' players for a league game, against Crystal Palace, in February 2005, and the club has always had a penchant for the occasional exotic signing. Indeed, one of the reasons for Arsenal's close relationship with Ajax for many years has been that the Dutch club supplied them, via Margate, with their first foreign (non-British) player, goalkeeper Gerard Keyser, in 1930.

Keyser, also known as Keizer, played in the opening dozen games of that championship-winning season and, in his time at Highbury, flew regularly to Amsterdam after a Saturday match to play for Ajax on Sunday. He was known as the 'flying keeper'; a colourful character, he was later to be jailed for smuggling before joining the board at Ajax where for many years he was considered to be a legendary character. So, foreign keepers are not a novelty for Arsenal in any way!

Undoubtedly, the modern squad has the finest selection of foreign players so far. And just as in the past when certain clubs had periods of very close association with particular home nations - Manchester United and the Irish, for example - so, too, today, similar affiliations have developed. Arsenal, for example, has become a strongly Francophile club while Liverpool has been Spanish and Chelsea more universal, with an Italian thread of consistency.

All will, like the Gunners, be in the same boat this Saturday, however; fingers crossed in hope that their men return from national duty fit and unscathed.

Tim Collings' best 'foreign' Arsenal team of all time:

1. Jens Lehmann (Germany)
2. Lauren (Cameroon)
3. Gael Clichy (France)
4. Patrick Vieira (France)
5. William Gallas (France)
6. Thomas Vermaelen (Belgium)
7. Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic)
8. Cesc Fabregas (Spain)
9. Thierry Henry (France)
10. Dennis Bergkamp (Netherlands)
11. Robert Pires (France)

Subs: Manuel Almunia (Spain); Kolo Toure (Ivory Coast); Emmanuel Petit (France); Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo); Marc Overmars (Netherlands).

Tim Collings