Jack happy to shrug off Deeney dig

JACK WILSHERE hit back at Watford skipper Troy Deeney’s criticisms of Arsenal – but it was hard to describe it as “fighting talk”.

Following Arsenal’s late surrender at Vicarage Road on Saturday, Deeney questioned the “cojones” of the players, suggesting that Watford’s greater desire had helped them achieve the 2-1 win.

“There’s a reason they lost and it wasn’t because of one penalty,” he said. “I have to watch what I say but – having a bit of cojones, I think the word is. Having a bit of nuts.

“Whenever I play Arsenal – and this is just personal – I go up and I think, let me whack the first one, let’s see who wants it.”

Wilshere was on the bench on Saturday but is expected to play in the pivotal No10 role tonight in Belgrade that he performed so impressively in the previous group game against BATE Borisov.

“As a player, if your attitude is questioned, it’s horrible,” said Wilshere, above. “I went to Bournemouth [on loan] last year and I look around this team and you can’t question our character. People try and put us down, they always have. I don’t think the comments were justified.

“When we look at the game, we look back at ourselves and what we did wrong. I don’t think we can look back and question our character. We did certain things wrong but we certainly didn’t want to let the lead slip. We will move on.

“We have a game tomorrow and another big game at the weekend, and we have seen with this team that the players can bounce back quickly – and we will do that.”

But there was little sense it has stung the Arsenal camp into a demonstration to that effect in the intimidating environment of the Rajko Mitic Stadium, known locally as the ‘Marakana’ for its Brazilian-style noise levels.

Wilshere was asked if the players were angry at the comments. “As players we have not spoken about that,” he said. “I’m sure individually players are disappointed – no one wants to hear those comments. But players are entitled to their opinions.”

Manager Arsene Wenger’s response was equally lacklustre. “Everybody is entitled to talk,” he said. “After the game – sometimes the enthusiasm of what happened – people can go overboard. We don’t listen too much to what people say, we try to analyse our own game.

“I know who my players really are. In the previous seven games we had six wins and one draw. The comments, that’s part of the modern game. I love my players and I trust their strength of character to respond quickly.”

The players most under scrutiny after Deeney’s comments were all left behind ahead of the game in Serbia. The biggest surprise on the teamsheet Wenger is expected to post against Red Star is Mathieu Debuchy returning for his first game since November 2016.

“He has not played for a long time because every time he is close to coming back he gets injured,” said Wenger. “He will certainly start.”