Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has defended his decision to field an entire squad without an English player in Monday's 5-1 win against Crystal Palace. Wenger fielded the first foreign 16-man squad in English football history because Ashley Cole was ill and Sol Campbell was out injured. "I don't look at the passport of people, I look at their quality and their attitude," Wenger said.
Wenger joked: "England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson was here, so who did he watch then? Has he signed for a different country?" Wenger had few alternatives, given that Justin Hoyte was injured and Jermaine Pennant is on loan at Birmingham. Ryan Smith is still a teenage prospect and Stuart Taylor is the third-choice goalkeeper. Many of the club's exciting youngsters have been recruited from abroad. Their 16-man squad against Palace featured six Frenchmen, three Spaniards, two Dutchmen, one Cameroon international, one German, one Ivory Coast international, one Brazilian and one Swiss.
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