Arsenal's Jack Wilshere takes aim at being the next Cesc Fábregas

Arsenal's Jack Wilshere takes aim at being the next Cesc Fábregas. In the first weeks of the season the 18-year-old has hurtled from the fringes of Arsenal's first-team to thrive with club and country.

Every appearance is proving an education for Jack Wilshere these days. The teenager has graduated from highly-rated prospect to first-team regular and full international in six breathless weeks this season, his development suddenly hurtling along at breakneck pace including 90 minutes in Arsenal's midweek thrashing of Braga. "To play in the Champions League is an experience a player of 33 may not have had in his whole career," the midfielder says. "To be doing that at 18 … well, it's such a bonus."

Such understatement felt inappropriate coming from a player whose reputation was burgeoning long before he emerged in the first team at the Emirates, yet everything about Wilshere's season to date has been unexpected. He was expected to replicate his loan move to Bolton Wanderers, struck in January, and gain senior playing time elsewhere in the Premier League. Instead, he was much needed at his parent club and, while Arsène Wenger has admitted to being "surprised" at just how involved he has become, the management will be delighted at his progress.

Wilshere has been involved in all Arsenal's games this season, often sitting deep alongside Alex Song in an inventive and industrious midfield shield that both protects a revamped back-line and prompts the creative talents prevalent in this team's forward ranks. Before this season, the 18-year-old had played seven minutes for Arsenal in the Premier League. Now an England international, courtesy of a 10-minute cameo against Hungary last month, and a regular team-mate of players such as Cesc Fábregas at club level, his expected inclusion at Sunderland tomorrow afternoon no longer provokes surprise.

Fábregas's impact on his continued development is clear. "I'd watch him when he was younger and see how he dealt with things, and having him at the club – playing in the same team as him – is the perfect opportunity to learn from him," Wilshere says. "He takes me to one side occasionally. Around the training ground he is helpful and, when he is on the pitch, he is telling me things to do and try. He tells me I'm not going to play every week and that I've got to break through slowly to stay in. That's how it worked with him, after all. Hopefully I can follow in his footsteps and be as good as him.

"For me, in the position he plays, he's the best in the world. That showed in the summer with all the interest from the clubs who want him, and with everyone talking about his future. That is what I want to be like – he is the perfect player to learn from, and to play with. It's so easy to find him with a pass given the way he makes space, and he helps you through the game. He is always talking to you, a great leader as well as a good player. The more games I can play with him the better."

Yet Wilshere's progress this season should not be put down to the Fábregas effect alone. Relations between Wenger and Owen Coyle, once so strong, may have appeared strained this week but both clubs undoubtedly gained greatly from the teenager's loan to Wanderers last January. The midfielder started 13 league games for Coyle's side as they eased their way clear of the relegation zone. "There are world-class players at Arsenal and I had to get some games," Wilshere says. "But I came back more experienced and stronger for it. If you play regularly at this level you get into the rhythm needed and it obviously makes it easier for you."

He is more streetwise on the field now, and more attuned to the frenetic and physical nature of the game at this level. There is a maturity in his play, whether in the choice of pass or the reading of an opponent's attack, that belies his years. "That spell with Bolton was important because it accelerated his career by being confronted by opponents in the Premier League and having tough games," Wenger said on Wednesday. "But Jack has been educated here and was already an outstanding player when he left for Bolton. This is the final part of the education of a player: to be integrated in the first team and play at this level. I didn't expect him to be as involved as he has been this season, in all honesty, but you can never predict how quickly they will develop."

England, as well as Arsenal, can be grateful for the progress he has made. His chance to make an impact against Hungary last month was wrecked by a stomach bug that prompted a trip to hospital the night before the match at Wembley. The cramps had eased by kick-off and he did come on from the bench late on. "But sometimes I just had to pinch myself, sitting in the changing room next to Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard at all," he says.

"I was just happy to get on and I thought I did OK, even it was only for 10 minutes. Hopefully that's just the start and I'll get more opportunities, but, for me, the most important thing at the moment is concentrating on establishing myself with my club. I just have to play my game and keep my feet on the ground." Arsenal's gem is gaining polish.

Source: Dominic Fifield, The Guardian on 17 Sep 10