Wilshere is back at his old level
LONDON: Jack Wilshere can reclaim his place in the England squad for this year’s World Cup, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said after the midfielder ended a more than two-year wait for a top-flight goal on Wednesday.
The injury-plagued 26-yearold midfielder, who last played for England in the humiliating defeat by Iceland at Euro 2016 and was loaned out to Bournemouth last season, opened the scoring in the 2-2 draw with Chelsea.
His finish, a thumping left-foot effort that flew past Thibaut Courtois and in off the post in the 63rd minute, continued a return to form for Wilshere, whose last Premier League goal was in May 2015.
Wilshere suffered a broken leg playing for Bournemouth in April and was a fringe player at Arsenal this season after recovering, but has started the last five league games.
“I think he is at the level now where not many people expected him to be,” Wenger, who recently said he would allow Wilshere to leave to gain first-team football, said.
“When was the last time he played for England? Exactly, against Iceland. Since he has not played for England and I would say that means everybody had given up on him.”
Wilshere’s goal ended a 43-match run of Premier League games without one, although he was perhaps lucky to still be on the pitch after escaping a second yellow card for an apparent dive in the second half.
“Fair to say I enjoyed that!” Wilshere said on Twitter and Arsenal fans also are delighted to see a player once tipped for the very top back to something approaching his best form.
The key now for Wilshere is to maintain his form for Arsenal and, most importantly, stay injury-free to convince England manager Gareth Southgate that he is worthy of seat on the plane to Russia in the summer though his priority is getting Arsenal back into the top four having slipped to sixth. “I’ve just got to keep working and take each game as they come,” Wilshere said. Reuters