Jack Wilshere's Back - And Boy Did Arsenal Miss Him
The prodigal son has returned, and not a moment too soon.
interview with the BBC yesterday, Wilshere described his boyhood club as a new team, whilst adding that he himself felt like a new player, happy to be up and running again on the immaculately kept green of the Emirates. Wilshere was unsurprisingly buoyant, his eyes gleaming with infantile happiness and contentment after months of hurdling many obstacles that stood between him and his passion, though thankfully he managed to handle his isolation after being blessed by the birth of his son, Archie, who provided the midfielder with responsibilities that are far more important than a game of football. Of course however, it was a pleasure to see Wilshere pull on the Arsenal jersey, and he would have no doubt been exasperated by his footballing hiatus, desperate to remind spectators of his prodigious talent and unwavering appetite for high-octane sporting competition. In the past week, his teams shortcomings have been brutally exposed by relegation scrappers Norwich and the German outfit, Schalke, who were both alarmingly comfortable in their victories over The Gunners, who had initially begun their season with much promise. With the protection of an apparently solid back four and the wise acquisitions of Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski on the attacking front, some people began to talk positively about the exits of stars like Van Persie, with their departures reaffirming the clubs team spirit and togetherness, no longer relying on a sole individual to win matches. This was, to put it succinctly, a foolish assumption, for the exodus of a big player would damage any club, no matter how gargantuan in reputation or wealth. Arsenals current struggles give evidence to this notion, as they have missed that extra ingredient that would have rescued them from their past two defeats; an eye of the needle pass from Fabregas perhaps, or a spectacular goal from van Persie just as Arsenal appeared to be on the wane. Therefore, Wilsheres return could not come soon enough, and though it is dangerous to rely so heavily on such a young player, he might prove to be the difference between a top four, or top five finish come May 2013, as well as providing a touch of class on European nights. Everybody who watched Arsenal defeat Barcelona 2-1 in the 2010-11 Champions League encounter will remember just how imperious Wilshere was, dominating the game from the first whistle to the last, out-playing the magnificent carousel of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, with a pass completion rate of 93.5%, a statistic that his opponents would have been proud of. This performance over any other, displayed just how much potential Wilshere has, and the hype surrounding him is more than justified for a player who looks to be the closest thing England has to Paul Scholes. At the tender age of twenty, he already possesses all the attributes required to make a fine footballer; he can create chances, control matches, put in a tackle, and courageously battle for the whole ninety minutes. His grace and majesty on and off the ball is there for all to see, his movement and awareness guileful and devoid of youthful naivety, awarding him with a worldly composure bestowed upon only a small minority of players, so intuitive that they are a split second ahead of everybody else on the pitch, knowing where to run or who to pick out with breathless ease. A rhapsody of superlatives will be used to describe him for years to come if he can stay fit and remain hungry, and both Arsenal and England supporters will be praying that he makes a swift recompense to the form he showed the season before last; if he does, the skys the limit.