Jack Wilshere finally got his first Premier League start of the season for Arsenal against West Ham in midweek, and he impressed many watching fans and pundits. The ex-Liverpool star Danny Murphy was one of his biggest fans. He said: “This is the best I have seen Jack Wilshere in ages. Against West Ham on Wednesday, he looked somewhere near to the old Jack in terms of committing players, being sharp on the ball, being hard to get off the ball and working hard the other way.
“He came on as a sub against Southampton and made a real difference in that game and against West Ham. On Wednesday, he played in a midfield three and the team had better balance.
“Jack was the one driving Arsenal forward and, for me, he is a better player than Granit Xhaka. When Jack receives the ball, he goes forward and past people.
“I think Arsenal will beat Newcastle comfortably and Jack deserves his place in the team.”
He probably does, but we also have to remember that he played the full 90 minutes against the Hammers and he has not gained full match fitness as yet, and Wenger could be worried about him playing again so quickly. In fact Le Prof didn’t sound confident about Jack starting today. “I don’t know yet at the moment, but we will see how everybody will be recovered,” Wenger said. “We play on Tuesday again and have four games in basically nine days so will have to assess how everybody recovers, but he had done well in the game we played.”
“I think it was an encouraging performance,”
“He suffered certainly a little bit in the last 20, but we were in a position where we had to attack, so I left him on the pitch because of course he can contribute to that, but overall it’s a positive. He has been very patient and worked very hard.”
With Ramsey and Cazorla out, if Wenger decides to rest Wilshere as well he will be left with Xhaka and Maitland-Niles, both played on Wednesday as well, with Coquelin and Elneny the only other midfielders available