A few years ago Jack Wilshere was hailed as the next big English star and was loved for his do-or-die attitude for Arsenal. Due to injuries and lay-offs that expectation has waned a bit, but the player himself feels that he has now regained his golden touch for the Gunners.
He told Arsenal.com today: “I’ve been very pleased. I said at the start of the season that it was going to take me a few games to come back to the level I was at.
“When you miss time at this level you lose a bit of pace, a bit of form and it takes you time to get back. I’m very pleased.
“The main thing that got me back is my pride. I never wanted to stop – I was never satisfied with the level I was playing at.
“I always knew that I could come back to a level that I wanted to be at and be able to dominate games. I’m happy at the moment but I still think I can do a little bit better.”
“I’ve said before that my goalscoring record has never been good enough and that I always want to add more goals,”
“You look at the top midfielders in the world like Lampard and Gerrard who were getting 15 or 20 goals a season back in their day.
“I’m not saying I can get that many because they were specialists at that, but I could definitely get into double figures.”
I love to hear Arsenal players speaking confidently, but I am not sure that Jack is quite back to his best. In fact his THREE goals last season was a career best, and his ONE goal this season hardly emphasises his belief that he has hit top form.
From my personal point of view I don’t think he should even be in the starting XI on current form, but he obviously thinks differently. Maybe Wenger is starting him in every game in the hope that he emulates Aaron Ramsey last season when he finally came good?