Arsène Wenger the preacher must play the big spender

The Arsenal manager has to purge a failing culture and begin afresh with hardened winners

At most aristocratic football clubs, breaking up a side that had not won a bean for six years would feel like a moral duty. The problem starts when the best players break it up themselves without waiting for the manager to announce who should stay or go.

The deepest motivations of Samir Nasri are impossible to know but we can be sure they correspond in part to the size of his weekly wage packet. Cesc Fábregas is a little more obvious; he pines for home and a chance to play in the world's best team with the pals he left behind to join a Barcelona cloning operation in London. But in both cases you detect a collapse of faith that could soon become infectious across Arsène Wenger's fragile squad.

Without control, a manager is no longer the author of his own story. This summer Wenger is being dictated to by events for which he is to blame. A grand idea taken to an unworkable extreme is the way many of us regard the great Arsenal project to impose flowing one-touch football on the Premier League. Those of us who want him to prosper with a team built in his own creative image despair when fundamental prerequisites for success are wilfully omitted, such as a properly organised and resolute back five.

The fear seizing all Arsenal supporters is that any windfall from the sale of Fábregas, Nasri and Gaël Clichy would disappear into the vortex of the club's finances: a confusing swirl of takeover ambitions, stadium costs and Wenger's own refusal to play the mad transfer market game. In a good year this can seem heroic, in a bad one – when they lose a Carling Cup final to relegated Birmingham City, say – it strikes the fans more as a deluded obsession with unproven youngsters from small French clubs.

Fernando Torres performed a service to football by demanding to leave Liverpool for Chelsea. He reminded the whole game that clubs with heritage and tradition should always expel players who no longer want to be there. The life of the club must always be asserted over the whims of the individual. To sell a persistently restless player is a restatement of strength.

For Wenger, though, the picture is more complex. The disaffection in his ranks is more ominous. His players are starting to look like parishioners tiring of their messianic preacher and filing out of the church in mid-sermon. A ¤40m (£36m) offer for Fábregas last summer was resisted only after Wenger had promised his captain the jam promised for tomorrow was finally coming up the drive. The top Arsenal players have probably ceased to believe that message and no longer want to face a grumpy Emirates crowd while being pushed around by Manchester United and Chelsea. Already there are suggestions that Robin van Persie is growing twitchy about the potential for an exodus and the possibility that Fábregas and Nasri would not be replaced by players of similar calibre.

This is where Wenger has to act. A desire not to be ripped off in the transfer market is no longer an adequate excuse when so many of the young players he has educated and supported keep letting him down. Why should he sacrifice his own career to people who go missing in the biggest games? The complication is Wenger's fixation with finding raw talent and feeding it through the London Colney university in line with the Arsenal way.

Well, the Arsenal way is not working, and the fans know it, which is why they resent the constant calls for patience while ticket prices shoot up. They want less Abou Diaby and more Yaya Touré. They want the spirit of Patrick Vieira in midfield and the dog-bite of Adams, Keown and Bould in defence.

Arsenal were never effete. The current generation of followers grew up watching George Graham's teams, admired the solidity as well as the skill of Wenger's first Double-winning side and adored The Invincibles. All they ask is that beauty is realigned with more of the old belligerence. They crave toughness and a winning spirit.

Building a new side around Jack Wilshere, Wenger could use the coming windfall to declare a six-year period of dreaming officially over, and head out into the market to find the kind of players Arsenal used to employ before frailty became the norm. The hard part for the manager will be an admission that he took a wrong turn with his Sorbonne of all the talents. The next job may be rebuilding from the back, where United and Chelsea build better barricades.

This could be the best chance – the last chance – for Wenger to purge a failing culture and begin afresh with hardened winners. Ideally he would want to shed the passengers rather than the officer class but that luxury is denied to him by his own error in over‑investing in potential. It may sound shallow to say £70m-£80m of incoming wealth should be spent straight away but this is where Arsenal happen to stand: at the end of something, with a better path ahead.

Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 2 Jul 11

Arsenal's Jack Wilshere, owner of Xavi's shirt, revels in big night

Jack Wilshere ended the "biggest night" of his career by leaving the Emirates having been handed the shirts of Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, the two Barcelona heroes the Arsenal midfielder hopes to emulate.

The 19-year-old produced a superbly poised performance in Arsenal's 2-1 victory in an exhilarating first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie that came on the back of his first start for England the previous week.

"It is by far the biggest night of my Arsenal career so far. They have players like Xavi, Iniesta, [Lionel] Messi - I have been watching them for years now. I watched them in the World Cup and many of them [the Barcelona team] are World Cup winners," said Wilshere, who had the shirts of Xavi and Iniesta with him in his bag. "It's been a crazy couple of weeks, probably the best couple of weeks of my life."

"But there is still a job to do. We want to see it through at the Nou Camp. We have to get a goal early and then let them come at us again."

Despite being praised by Arsène Wenger as "outstanding" Wilshere was modest regarding the suggestion that he was comfortable performing against such garlanded opponents. "It's easy to play with the players we have," he said. "We play similar to Barcelona and that's the kind of football I like to play. It's easy to fit into a team like Arsenal. He also revealed that none of the Barcelona players wanted to talk after the match. "No, they were a bit upset. They were 1-0 up and they lost, so they were upset."

Last year in the quarter-finals Arsenal were trounced 4-1 in Spain after they had held Barcelona 2-2 but they will take confidence from beating for the first time the team considered by many to be the best in the world.

"Last year helped us," Wilshere said. "We learned a lot. We knew we had to push them harder. Last year they started off well in the first half and we came back into it. This time we did and we got the win. The defence was great. Playing against Messi and [David] Villa is a big ask but they were great. Keeping patient was vital. We know they are very good and can keep the ball and for the first 20 minutes of the first half we were chasing them. We knew we had to keep our shape and hit them on the counterattack and push up hard in the second half."

"We know there's character in this team. We showed that against Everton [winning 2-1 a fortnight ago when also 1-0 behind at half-time]. We are still in all four competitions and that takes some character."

Wilshere and his colleagues responded to Wenger's half-time team talk. "We created four chances in the first half so we weren't out of it. He said the chances would come and we had to just keep plugging away. That's what we did. It was hard."

"In the first half they showed how good they are on the ball. It was hard to get in their faces but in the second half we pushed them and got two good goals. Now we have to go to the Nou Camp and show our character. And we have to go at them as well."

Johan Djourou believes Arsenal may now be on the verge of greatness. "We showed a lot of character and to come back from behind and win was incredible," the central defender said. "I think our team has a lot of potential to achieve greatness at the end of the season."

Nicklas Bendtner, whose introduction as substitute served as a further notice of their attacking intentions, was keen to highlight his side's ability to cope with pressure. "We could have given up but if you look at the one thing that we've never done all through the whole season is to give up," the striker said.

"We've kept going until the last second where we had some difficult moments against Ipswich [Town in the Carling Cup semi-final] and Leeds [United] where it came down to a penalty at the end [to force a replay in the FA Cup]. That's the way the team is now. We never give up and it seems to give us results."

"It was a great result. The way we earned the result was through patience, belief and staying calm because there were periods in the first half where, against big teams, you always need a little bit of luck."

"To be honest, as I was warming up, I felt they were a bit tired. We felt there was a chance to get at them in the last few minutes."

"It's difficult to say what's different this time to a year ago. But we've improved and we've grown. We've grown as a team and grown as people and players and that came out."

"It was tremendous, a great feeling. Everyone is so happy. It's a big, big result against probably the best team in the world and it was a fantastic night."

Source: Jamie Jackson, The Guardian on 17 Feb 11

Jack Wilshere is the midfielder we have been waiting for

Arsenal scoured the world for a player like Jack Wilshere but it turns out he was in Hitchin all along

Arsène Wenger has roamed the earth for footballers who can pass like Xavi or Andrés Iniesta. For a long time he may have thought English youngsters were good only for giving the ball away or getting into scrapes in nightclubs. Imagine his surprise, then, when he found what he was looking for in Hitchin, a Hertfordshire town from where Valerie Singleton went on to present Blue Peter – a show Jack Wilshere has not long grown out of.

In French academies and African villages Wenger has pursued players capable of executing his vision of what football should be: a game of pace, skill, fluidity, adventure. But all he had to do was motor north from the club's training ground at London Colney to a heartland of suburban Arsenal support. There he found the most gifted young English midfielder since Paul Scholes, who made his debut for Manchester United at the age Wilshere is now.

The difference is that Scholes padded on to the scene in a League Cup match at Port Vale while Wilshere, at 19, already appears indistinguishable from Barcelona's two best midfielders, who took silver and bronze behind Lionel Messi in Fifa's world footballer of the year award. In Arsenal's 2-1 victory over Pep Guardiola's team Wilshere could have worn the livery of either side, such was his range of passing, his courage in demanding the ball in tight spots, his confidence and sense of belonging.

The two compatriots who bear comparison from the last 25 years are Scholes and Paul Gascoigne, who crashed the picture with Newcastle shortly before his 18th birthday, against QPR, in April 1985. Scholes was a small bundle of dexterity and toughness who still lacked the physical dimensions to convince United's coaching staff he would fully make the grade. Gascoigne was more of a maverick: brilliant but troubled, blessed but wayward.

This is where Wilshere's story veers off into its own sparkly realm. A Premier League debutant at 16 years and 256 days, the Stevenage-born but Hitchin-raised Wilshere won his first England cap at 18 years and 222 days and has already played 48 times for Arsenal.

Gascoigne was granted the freedom to self-destruct. Scholes had to fight his way through a thicket of selectorial challenges. At various times in his early years Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Juan Sebastián Verón all stood in his way. Scholes is a majestic player who has had to accommodate or work around rival talent more than we appreciate. In the end his class and loyalty paid dividends. At first he was seldom in command of his own destiny, as Wilshere is now.

In the aftermath of Arsenal's thrilling counter-drive one witness pointed out that Barcelona may forget Cesc Fábregas next summer and come calling for Wilshere instead. Normally, hype fixes itself on a young striker who announces himself with a rash of goals, or a zesty teenage winger who smears full-backs on toast. This time, though, praise is being stacked up for a young English conductor in the hardest position of all: a fresh face with the full repertoire of short and long link-play, balls round the corner and probing passes delivered on the run, like Steven Gerrard at his best.

In all dimensions Wilshere exceeded the bounds of what ought to be possible for a player of his years against the world's best club side. Gascoigne's finest moments were in an England shirt. In his brief prime he locked antlers with many formidable opponents. There is no memory, though, of him having to struggle against a Messi, Busquets, Iniesta and Xavi in spaces so heavily compressed that the rest of us would have no time to shout "help!" between receiving and losing the ball.

Scholes mastered this art steadily, in the company of serial trophy-winning colleagues. Wilshere seems to have arrived there by some developmental miracle. No time seemed to elapse between reports of his promise and the delivery of those hopes against Barcelona, in a Champions League knockout tie, amid suffocating pressure.

There is good news on the England front too. In an interview before the game Wilshere surrendered an insight into how highly his international team-mates rate him. Fabio Capello is in danger of using him as a luxury David Batty but Wilshere says: "I spoke to Frank Lampard before the [Denmark] game and he said – 'don't just sit, we've seen you can go forward, so if you want to go forward just tell me and I'll sit' – which is similar to my role with Arsenal really, when I have that licence too."

Lampard, who has travelled up many dead ends with England, is evidently helping with the future, which has arrived early, in the shape of a young orchestrator who defies the English norm. The system can be beaten.

Source: Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 17 Feb 11

Wilshere: My best day yet

Jack Wilshere insists that Arsenal's 2-1 defeat of Barcelona at the Emirates stadium is the best moment of his career to date.

Wilshere, 19, has cemented his place in the Arsenal starting XI this season and was also given his first start for England against Denmark. The young midfielder has impressed in the centre of the pitch and continued his rise with a fine performance against the Spanish champions.

"It has been a crazy last couple of weeks and this probably tops it. This has been my best day as an Arsenal player by far,'' Wilshere said. "It is not over yet. We have got the second leg and we have to go there and get a result and go through to the quarters."

"They had a spell of 20 minutes in the first half when we couldn't get the ball off them. We knew they were going to be like that, we just had to hold out and defend well and hit them on the counter-attack, and that's what we did."

Goalscorer Andrei Arshavin admitted that he had never heard an atmosphere like it before at the Emirates and told his team-mates to believe that they can get a result in the return leg at the Nou Camp.

"Barca controlled the ball very well but we did not let them play as usually they can and we took our chances to score two goals,'' Arshavin said. ''I thought if I have a chance I have to score and I did it. I am happy. That may be the best atmosphere since I joined Arsenal."

"It gives us confidence in the future but we still need to concentrate because Barcelona is going to be a very, very tough game. Without belief we can do nothing, that is why we must believe."

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 17 Feb 11

Jack Wilshere off the mark to secure victory for nervy Arsenal

It is the time of year for giving, but Arsenal's generosity knows no bounds. For the second time in eight days Arsène Wenger's side conspired to make a two‑goal lead at half-time look like the most vulnerable position to be in. This time there was to be no repeat of the humiliating collapse against Tottenham Hotspur, yet it was still impossible to ignore the defensive shortcomings that allowed Aston Villa back into a match that should have been well beyond them.

Coasting thanks to first-half goals from Andrey Arshavin and Samir Nasri, Arsenal were forced to endure a nervous finale after Ciaran Clark struck either side of Marouane Chamakh's 10th goal of the season to give Aston Villa supporters hope of producing the most unlikely of comebacks. Arsenal ultimately prevailed as Jack Wilshere registered his first Premier League goal for the club with a close-range header in injury time, but it was ridiculous that the visitors were forced to wait until the closing seconds to kill off the game.

Wenger could be forgiven for wondering whether his players take some sort of pleasure from seeing him looking like a tortured soul on the touchline. Arsenal had 18 shots on goal and were so dominant in the first half that the match resembled one of those training sessions in which the defenders have to keep giving the ball back to the attackers to encourage them to have another go at breaking them down. Villa departed to boos and the suspicion was that this could turn into a rout.

Yet instead of continuing in the same vein in the second half, Arsenal emerged seemingly weighed down by events at the Emirates Stadium last Saturday, when Tottenham triumphed 3-2 after trailing 2-0. Villa, looking much more purposeful without the hugely disappointing Robert Pires – who was withdrawn at the interval and, on this evidence, would have been better off retiring when he failed to find a club in the summer – pulled a goal back through Clark's left-footed volley as the Arsenal defence unwisely chose to retreat rather than close the midfielder down.

Gérard Houllier, the Villa manager, reflected how interesting the game would have been had the scoreline remained at 2-1 for a period, but, within four minutes, Arsenal scored again. Chamakh, who had earlier drawn a brilliant point-blank save from Brad Friedel with a towering header, toe-poked Tomas Rosicky's slide-rule pass beyond the Villa keeper.

Clark pegged Arsenal back again in the 70th minute, when he nodded the ball in off the underside of the bar, but Wilshere's diving header – from Chamakh's unselfish centre – allowed Wenger to breathe more easily. "You do not always lose when you dominate the game," Wenger, casting his mind back to the Tottenham fixture, said. "We were very dominant in the first half. The only regret you have at that stage is that you do not score enough goals. And then, at 2-0 at half-time, you feel among the players that what happened last week had an impact in their heads. When Villa came back to 2-1 it was an interesting test for my team. We could have crumbled or scored again, and we scored again."

With Cesc Fábregas missing because of injury, the onus was on Arsenal's more experienced players to deliver and Arshavin answered the call. The Russian has flattered to deceive on too many occasions, but he shimmered with menace here. It was Arshavin's goal – drilled low into the bottom corner after Luke Young and James Collins challenged for the same ball – that put Arsenal in front and he also created their second with a perfectly weighted corner that Nasri volleyed inside Friedel's near post just before half-time.

Villa's second-half revival enabled them to recover some self-respect, but these are worrying times for a club that has spent the past three seasons ensconced in the top six. Houllier has a dreadful injury list, but he refused to cite that as an excuse for their anaemic first-half performance. "We never got started," the Villa manager said. "In the second half it was a different team. We showed more energy, took more risks and were more daring in what we wanted to achieve. But we have to be honest – we were beaten by the better team."

Source: Stuart James, The Guardian on 27 Nov 10

Wilshere back to boost Gunners

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has shaken off a back problem which ruled him out of England's defeat to France and comes into contention for the north London derby clash with Tottenham.

There were no other injury concerns from the midweek international friendlies, Laurent Koscielny returns from a two-game suspension and Nicklas Bendtner (groin) should be available after missing the win at Everton.

Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia (elbow), centre-half Thomas Vermaelen (Achilles), midfielder Abou Diaby (ankle) remain out, while Aaron Ramsey continues his rehabilitation following a broken leg.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has questioned the logic of any Arsenal fan aiming abuse at William Gallas in the north London derby.

Gallas will return to the Emirates Stadium for the first time since completing one of the most controversial transfers of recent times by joining their arch-rivals Spurs.

Crossing the north London divide this summer has all but guaranteed the former Gunners captain a hostile reception from the Emirates Stadium crowd.

But Redknapp cannot understand anyone wanting to jeer the 33-year-old, who was released by Arsenal at the end of last season.

He said: "You play for a club, play well for them: you should get a good reception, surely? What do they want to give them abuse for?

"He got freed from Arsenal and I took him to Tottenham and he wants to play football.

"He's come here and played, done great for us.

"He's taken us where we are in the Champions League. He's played a big part in that and in the league.

"I hope he gets a good reception.''

Redknapp backed the vastly-experienced Gallas, who joined Arsenal from Chelsea in 2006, to cope with whatever is thrown at him.

"His frame of mind: he's a strong character; nothing fazes him,'' Redknapp said.

"He'll go back there, look forward to the game and be ready to play.''

Yet Bacary Sagna has declared "war'' on Gallas.

But the Gunners full-back insisted the pair would resume their strong friendship as soon as the final whistle is blown at the Emirates Stadium.

This weekend sees Gallas return to his former club for the first time since crossing the north London divide in one of the most controversial transfers of recent years.

The 33-year-old Tottenham defender can expect a hostile reception from the home fans, many of whom will have branded him a traitor.

And Gallas will be very much the enemy as far as Sagna is concerned during the lunchtime clash.

"On the pitch there is a war, but off the pitch we are all friends,'' he said.

Indeed, Gallas' fellow Frenchman bears no grudge towards his former captain for joining Arsenal's arch-rivals.

"I'm not angry at him because he signed for our rivals,'' said Sagna.

"He was always very professional (here) and he always gave everything.

"Football is football; I'm not furious against him."

"He needed to leave to play football and that is what he loves.''

Gallas' temperament was questioned during his time as Arsenal captain and he was infamously stripped of the armband after attacking his team-mates.

"That was his hunger because he wanted to win so much,'' Sagna said.

"Maybe he expressed it in a bad way but it was not bad at all because he wanted us to win.''

He added: "He deserves a good reception because during the time he played for Arsenal he always did well.''

Sagna believes it is too soon to start comparing Gareth Bale with the best players in the world but has no doubt of the threat he poses.

"He's doing very well at the moment but don't put pressure on him too early,'' Sagna said.

"At the moment, he's one of the most dangerous wingers.''

Jermain Defoe returns to the Tottenham squad.

The England striker could be involved in the Barclays Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium after recovering from ankle surgery almost a month ahead of schedule.

Aaron Lennon looks to have overcome a hamstring injury but Niko Kranjcar is doubtful with a calf problem and could join Robbie Keane (ankle), Giovani dos Santos (groin) and long-term absentees Tom Huddlestone (ankle), captain Ledley King (groin), Michael Dawson (ligament damage), Jamie O'Hara (back) and Jonathan Woodgate (groin) on the sidelines.

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 19 Nov 10

Jack Wilshere signs new long-term contract

Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that Jack Wilshere has signed a new long-term contract with the Club.

Wilshere, who has been at Arsenal since the age of nine, has made a huge impact with his performances in the first-team this season, already making eight Premier League appearances and featuring in all three UEFA Champions League matches so far this campaign.

The 18 year-old has now made a total of 27 first-team appearances, scoring two goals. On making his debut at Blackburn Rovers in September 2008, he became the youngest-ever player to represent Arsenal in the league, aged just 16 years and 256 days.

Two months later in November 2008, Wilshere, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Owen Coyle's Bolton Wanderers, became the youngest player to represent the Club in European competitions, at 16 years and 329 days, when Arsenal faced Dynamo Kyiv in the UEFA Champions League.

Earlier this season, Jack was rewarded for his rapid development by earning his first full England cap, playing for the Three Lions in the Friendly International match against Hungary at Wembley Stadium in August.

Arsène Wenger said: "It's such great news that Jack has committed his long-term future to the Club. Jack is a fantastic footballer with a huge amount of potential, and we have all seen with his performances so far that he is a very gifted player, who could be an extremely influential player at the top level of the game."

"At still only 18 years of age, there is still so much more to come from him and we're all excited by the fact that Jack Wilshere will be an Arsenal player for years to come."

Jack Wilshere added: "Arsenal Football Club has been like a second home for me and my family since I was nine years old. To be offered a new contract means everything to me."

"At this point in my career, when I'm only 18 years old and still learning so much about the game and myself, this is the perfect club, the perfect team-mates, the perfect fans, the perfect backroom staff and most importantly, the perfect manager to help continue that."

"I've got a long way to go before I can become the player I dream of becoming and I'm sure I'll keep making the odd mistake, but it is a massive help for me having a special manager like Arsène Wenger and so many quality team-mates and the unbelievable Arsenal fans around me. I believe there is a lot more to come from me."

"I've been at the Club for almost ten years already, so I would like to thank everyone that has been part of getting me this far, especially people like Liam Brady, Roy Massey and all his staff at the Hale End Academy. Also Neil Banfield, Steve Bould, Academy Coach Steve Leonard, Academy Scout Bob Arber, Assistant Head of Youth Development David Court, all the backroom staff, Arsène Wenger, all my team-mates and, of course, my family."

Everyone at Arsenal Football Club is looking forward to Jack's continued contribution in the forthcoming years.

Source: Arsenal.com on 1 Nov 10

A Maturing Talent to Go With a Mature Spirit

Every night in European soccer turns a new page, offers up new perspectives.

When the Champions League resumed Tuesday, it brought good, solid evidence to suggest that Real Madrid and Chelsea will not be far away when this season’s top prize is contested at Wembley stadium in London next May.

It also brought a reminder than when Arsenal is on its game, its youthful élan can be pretty irresistible.

And it brought sad portents that Italy, despite holding the Champions League crown through Inter Milan, can at the same time look like a soccer nation in decline. The A.C. Milan side that lost, 2-0, in Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid had a careworn, aging and at times apparently disinterested appearance.

Roma looked even worse. Playing at home, in front of a pitifully small crowd in the Olimpico, Francesco Totti and company surrendered, 3-1, to Basel. “We started badly,” the Roma coach, Claudio Ranieri, lamented. “Approach was bad. We were too far apart and disjointed.”

In what sounded like a resignation speech, though he immediately insisted it was nothing of the kind, the coach said at his postgame news conference that he had asked his players why their performance was so sluggish.

“They can’t answer,” he said, “and neither can I. We have to figure out why we can give our best in some games and not in others.” Around the same time, in Madrid, the Milan coach, Massimo Allegri, was giving his own mea culpa. “Our approach was all wrong tonight,” he confessed.

“With all respect to Madrid, one of the best teams in the world, I think we made their lives very easy with a soft approach.” Their frankness might be commendable, but if the coaches are not responsible for the attitude of their teams, who is? When things are so wrong, when aging stars like Totti or Clarence Seedorf no longer seem to muster the urgency or the pace to compete at the highest levels, the coach has to react.

Of course, Seedorf, with all that he has achieved, and Totti, with all the gifts he was given, are the first choice on any team as long as they still can do it. Their experience, alone, is invaluable.

But it cannot be deemed irreplaceable. Sports are ruthless about that fact.

Athletes age, and there comes a time when they have to be replaced for the good of the team.

“Genius is great when it’s on song,” the former Manchester City manager Joe Mercer used to say. “But when it goes off, it contaminates.” Harsh judgment, but with a searing ring of truth.

But where, in these times of financial restraints, is the money to replace them? How can once competitive clubs compete with Real Madrid, Chelsea or Manchester City, whose wealth allows them to outspend all the rest and attract the very best? The answer has to be to nurture the next generation. And Tuesday gave an example of that, too.

Arsenal’s manager, Arsène Wenger, is an incorrigible cultivator of young talents. He trusts youth more than he does aging stars, and he at times almost willfully gives a young lad a chance at the expense, as many an Arsenal fan sees it, of spending a fortune on big-name players.

The youngster at the heart of Arsenal’s 5-1 crushing of Shakhtar Donetsk in London on Tuesday was Jack Wilshere.

Living and training with skilled midfield internationalists like Cesc Fàbregas, Tomas Rosicky, Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin must impress the 18-year-old English apprentice. Impress him, but not make him feel in the least bit inferior.

Wilshere - born 30 miles, or about 50 kilometers, from Arsenal’s home stadium - has been growing toward the first team for two years now. Arsenal has worked on his talent since he was 12, and the head of Arsenal’s youth academy, Liam Brady, has tried all he knows to keep the precocious youth’s feet on level ground.

Brady, one of the finest playmakers of world soccer, knows that such a talent is born. But attitude and aptitude, the very things experienced coaches were despairing about on Tuesday, have to be learned.

Wilshere has the best of examples right beside him on the field. He only has to remember how Fàbregas was thrown into Arsenal’s side as a 16-year-old, and how Fàbregas grew, game by game, into a young leader of the men around him.

But Fàbregas belonged to Barcelona before he arrived at Arsenal. And Fabregas, we believe, will go home to Barça one day - maybe even as early as next spring.

It seems to be a given that Fàbregas will go, and Wilshere will inherit his role.

In terms of that progression, we have just witnessed back-to-back examples of Wilshere’s initiation. Last Saturday, he was rightly red-carded for a reckless tackle in an English Premier League match. Unlike some senior pros who foul and then rail against the punishment, Wilshere apologized for his mistimed attempt to win the ball.

He apologized in person to the opponent, to the referee and to his coach.

Wenger told him to learn the lesson, and atone in the next match.

That came Tuesday. Donetsk has a blend of Ukrainians and Brazilians, but Wilshere left them in his wake. His ability to read moves ahead of time is exceptional — like Fàbregas’s.

His accuracy in making a pass, sprinting to receive a return pass, then going onward and upward into goal-scoring or goal-making situations is innate.

“Jack’s maturity is miles ahead of his age,” Wenger said Tuesday. “He can play in any position across the midfield, or he can play behind the striker, because he can penetrate.” Indeed he can. One of Arsenal’s five goals, the finest one, was Wilshere’s hallmark. He shaped the goal and scored it. He gave short passes to two willing teammates, and drifted into spaces between the Donetsk defenders to receive it back.

The coup de grâce was his ability — almost a sixth sense — to wait a split second until goalie Andriy Pyatov went to the ground. The instant the keeper did so, the kid gently lifted the ball over him into the net.

As easy as shelling peas.

Source: Rob Hughes, The New York Times on 20 Oct 10

How amazing is our Jack?

To my mind the only amazing thing about the Jack Wilshere story is that the media in England are not drooling all over him. You would have thought that with an absolute dearth of English creative midfielders capable of doing anything other than pass sideways (Lampard, Barry or Carrick) the English footballing media would be going totally OTT about a new potential saviour of the English game. The only Englishmen I can only think of who have shown such amazing ability at such a young age are Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne, Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen.

Is it because the media now expect Wenger's 18 year-olds to be more technically gifted than all the other Premiership's under twenty-ones that they're not eulogising about such a rare creature as a technically gifted Englishman? Or is it because they wouldn't recognise a real footballer if he bit them in the arse? Or is it perhaps, more probably, because they've all nailed their colours to the Wenger's destroying English football rollocks?

Charlie George, Liam Brady, Cesc Fabregas and now Jack Wilshere - you just knew how much you were going to enjoy them in years to come from the very first touch you saw them play in the first team. Just as with Charlie, Liam and Cesc you know that as Jack starts his career he's a long way from being the finished article but you also have no doubts whatsoever that he has the potential to be as good if not better than any of them. Jack glides past players like Liam, just as if he's on rollers rather than running. Also similar to Liam is his ability to maintain total control of the ball without even looking at it and by using any part of his foot from whatever angle to control it. As with Charlie he has a certain self-confidence that money just can't buy and an understated swagger which tells everyone that not only is he a class above the rest, but that he knows it and given the opportunity will prove it.

His similarity to Cesc is the way in which he seemingly knows where everyone on the pitch is at any given point, this comes from keeping his head up and perpetually looking around. He's busy like Cesc and not only always wants the ball but is usually in sufficient space to receive it. Just like Cesc he not only knows where everyone is at any given time but also their pace and direction of movement, so that any passes he makes appear to be instinctive rather than considered. Again as with both Cesc and Liam he knows where the ball will be going before it arrives and, as you will no doubt have observed, his passing range is seemingly limitless.

I doubt that his sending off on Saturday will be his last, but I love the fact that he's the sort of player that won't take crap from an opponent. It's time we had some more of those in the team and Jack is rather Berkampesque in that regard. He might be younger, shorter and less experienced than his opposite numbers but that that's not going to stop him putting it about whoever you might be. Try to kick him by all means, he knows you'll try and is expecting it, but you better be aware that is not going to be the last you hear or more probably feel regarding the matter. I love the way he can take it as well as dish it out, he almost always bounces straight up again when knocked down. For an eighteen year-old that's quite remarkable, but then again I have no doubt that opponents have been trying to kick him since he was about eight or nine so he's well practised in the art of tackle avoidance. An eighteen year-old. I have to keep repeating that because he doesn't play like an eighteen year-old. Technically he's eighteen going on about twenty-eight.

I get the impression he has a winning mentality but that has yet to be proved. I also reckon that in time we might see him unleash the sort of power shots that made Charlie the hero of the North Bank. I have no doubt also that there a lot more tricks in his locker that some day will amaze us in the way that Henry or Bergkamp did. Time will tell. I know it's far too early in his career to predict how it might go, I know he's yet to suffer the standard distractions that come the way of young men with far too much money. I know too that nothing is certain in life, I've seen a lot of players with potential who didn't make it big time but the idea of being there at first hand to watch Jack's career unfold is a fabulous prospect. It's also one I feel could well be worth the price of my season ticket in years to come.

Source: Brian Dawes, The Online Gooner on 19 Oct 10

Arsenal's Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fábregas show perfect synchronicity

The 18-year-old was fortunate to escape punishment for another rash tackle but hinted at a dazzling partnership with the captain.

Cesc Fábregas and Jack Wilshere could form a radiant Arsenal midfield duo. But only if Fábregas stays in London and Wilshere can stay on the pitch. At 18, a player needs a little devil in him to survive but he could do without headline writers calling him "Jack the Bad".

Wilshere jabbed his studs into the standing ankle of Shakhtar's Tomas Hubschman and was lucky to escape punishment. On Saturday he was shown a straight red card for flying into Birmingham City's Nikola Zigic. As Hubschman crumpled the stadium inhaled in expectation of another losing brush with the law.

Svein Oddvar Moen, the Norwegian referee, displayed his liberal side, using his arms in a cutting motion to say: cease and desist. Sometimes the young football mind is slow to see the pointlessness of violent challenges in non-threatening parts of the field.

Wilshere, though, sees plenty else. Deployed as a deep midfielder he allows Arsène Wenger to push Fábregas further upfield, closer to Marouane Chamakh. Fábregas was wearing the Arsenal shirt for the first time since 18 September and scored his team's third from the penalty spot before departing on 63 minutes. Already there is synchronicity between the captain and the leader of the club's new wave of English youth.

Another small concern for Wilshere, aside from his tackling, is the preponderance of attacking midfielders in Wenger's squad. Surrounded by artistes, he may find himself in an anchoring role where his creative passing will be inhibited. When Fábregas went off, Wilshere surged forward and helped himself to a goal, Arsenal's fourth, which served as a memo to his manager.

"I still believe he [Wilshere] can play high up the pitch too, but he has good stamina, good strength in the duels," Wenger says. "He's not the quickest, but he has good bursts and he has good vision to play through the lines. He's intelligent in his positioning and reading the game so this position suits him well. Basically he can play anywhere – when he was young he played wide – good players can do that."

Wenger also said: "He is someone who doesn't hide from challenges, and that's very important in the centre of the park." He can serve them up too, as Zigic and Hubschmann have found. Either he will come to understand that there is no need to parade his toughness with pointless lunges or his talent arrives with a temperament flaw that will cost him plenty in suspensions.

Sermon over. The main point is that he and Fábregas could be a dazzling combination. Plus, there seems no sensible reason not to use Wilshere in the England team now.

Paul Hayward, The Guardian on 20 Oct 10

Arsenal 2-1 Birmingham City

Arsenal came from behind to beat Birmingham and go second in the table but the victory was tarnished by a late red card for teenager Jack Wilshere.

The visitors went ahead against the run of play when striker Nikola Zigic headed home Keith Fahey's cross.

Samir Nasri levelled from the spot after a foul on Marouane Chamakh before Chamakh rounded Ben Foster to put Arsenal ahead early in the second half.

Wilshere, 18, was given his marching orders for an ugly lunge on Zigic.

The England midfielder's studs were showing as he went over the ball and took out the Serbian striker's standing leg.

And ironically, the Gunners' third red card of the season came after boss Arsene Wenger used his programme notes to call for managers and referees to get together in an attempt to clarify the rules over bad tackles.

Wilshere's indiscretion aside, it was an efficient comeback from Arsenal who, after defeats in their previous two games and with a trip to Manchester City looming next weekend, simply could not afford to drop points.

And Wenger will be delighted to have seen Chamakh continue his impressive start to life in English football with two decisive moments.

Arsenal were quickly into their trademark groove. Wilshere won the ball high up the pitch and played a one-two with Chamakh before sliding the Moroccan striker through on goal. His side-footed effort was destined for the bottom corner before it was brilliantly blocked by the lunging Stephen Carr.

At the other end, Roger Johnson was given a free header from a corner, but directed it straight at Lukasz Fabianski.

Carr was lucky to escape without a yellow card for an over-the-ball tackle on Chamakh and from the resulting free-kick, Sebastien Squillaci headed the ball into the net, only to be denied for a narrow offside.
The red tide showed no sign of abating, with Ben Foster bursting off his line to smother a shot from Andrey Arshavin and Gael Clichy slicing wide with his less-favoured right foot.

Despite all Arsenal's pressure, Birmingham took the lead against the run of play when Fahey whipped over a pin-point cross for the 6ft 8in Zigic, who towered above the Gunners defence and lopped a header past Fabianski.

And it was almost 2-0 moments later as a quick free-kick took Arsenal by surprise, only for Zigic and Lee Bowyer to get in each other's way as they fought to convert the loose ball.

And how Birmingham were made to pay for that miss. From Arsenal's next attack, Chamakh went down under a challenge from Scott Dann and referee Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot.

The decision incensed the visiting players, who felt Chamakh was already going to ground, but Nasri kept his composure to send Foster the wrong way.

Wenger spent most of the first period with a look of barely disguised anger on his face and whatever his words at half-time, they had the desired effect as the Gunners took the lead within two minutes of the re-start.

Alex Song's flick found Wilshere, who with two quick touches transferred the ball to Chamakh.

The Moroccan still had work to do, but with Carr and Dann perhaps wary of making another challenge in the box, he danced past the pair before taking the ball round Foster and slotting home his fifth goal of the season.
From then on, it seemed a matter of whether Arsenal could add gloss to the scoreline, with Wilshere bursting into space on the left before firing high and wide.

The home fans rose to greet Nicklas Bendtner in his first appearance of the season following a groin injury and the Dane was inches away from getting on the end of a cross from his fellow substitute Tomas Rosicky with Foster just beating him to the ball.

The Czech winger was the next to test Foster, with a powerful drive which the England goalkeeper did well to save at the first attempt.

Wilshere's dismissal ensured the game ended on a sour note for the Gunners fans, but news of Manchester United's slip-up at home against West Brom and a look at the league table should be enough to put the smile back on their faces.

Source: Sam Sheringham, BBC Sport on 16 Oct 10

Why we must savour the rare English delicacy that is Jack Wilshere

The 18-year-old is in England's senior and Under-21 squads, yet he is a delicate thing, to be handled, stroked and made much of.

The English don't generally like delicate, fancy things. They make us nervous. We don't so much gild the lily as crumple the lily in our fist, stuff it in the back pocket of our jeans and replace it with a functional precast concrete structure that we can grow a hedge in front of.

This aversion to the gratuitously splendid comes out in the most everyday objects. In Spain, for example, a "ham sandwich" is a deliciously sensuous experience, the fruit of generations of high-end artisan indulgence. In England a ham sandwich is a cold, pink punch in the face, an angry thing marbled with gristly neglect. It is this roundhead quality that makes me feel nervous about Jack Wilshere, teenage midfield scamp and current bearer of the title of most promising young footballer in England. Watching Wilshere set up Arsenal's first goal against Partizan Belgrade last month with a brilliant backheel, two thoughts sprang to mind. First: Wilshere is really good. And second: how are we going to ruin him?

The question of how exactly English football is going ruin Wilshere may have been answered this week. Wilshere is in Fabio Capello's England squad for Tuesday's game against Montenegro. He is also the only senior player also included in the Under-21 squad, and the only senior player who could end up playing twice for England in four days before playing again for Arsenal next weekend. Arsène Wenger has already expressed his misgivings and it is easy to sympathise. Squeezing in an extra 90 minutes for our most prized, coltish 18-year-old is so obviously a bad idea that it is hard to resist the sense that it must, on some level, be rooted in the basic English urge to test and pummel, to boot-camp and basic-train.

"It is vital that he plays as much football as he can," Stuart Pearce said this week. But you only need to look at the faun‑like, impish Wilshere to appreciate how perverse this is. Wilshere is a delicate thing, to be dandled and stroked and made much of, perhaps even quartered in a very small secure dark room, some kind of sealed basement annexe. We don't produce this type of player very often. When we do we generally succeed in ruining them. Why?

Perhaps my own deeply simplistic, but also infallible, method of classifying English players may help. Particularly because, in Wilshere and Kevin Davies, this England squad offers polar opposites in the range of English archetypes. Davies deserves his call-up. He is a good player. More importantly, he offers hope to heavy-set thirtysomething men everywhere, men who may yet harbour dreams of still being allowed to join the fire brigade, or of receiving an urgent request from Simon Cowell to become the fifth member in an ad hoc emergency X Factor boyband, perhaps as the Older One who never really sings or dances but instead stands around looking sad in the background.

Davies is also a perfect example of the classic English good-bad player. The good-bad player plays "bad" football very well. He has a narrow focus, based around limiting what might possibly happen on a football pitch through a combination of strength and tactical intelligence. Closely related is the bad-good player: he appears to play "good" football – expansive, expressive football – but in practice only occasionally succeeds and is, in effect, ineffective.

Then there is the bad-bad player: the hatchet man with no discernible hatchet, the striker with surprisingly bad feet for such a small man. And finally there is the good-good player, who succeeds in playing "good" football with consistent success. This type, the type Wilshere might yet be, is rarer in England, where there is an innate distrust of the good-good player; particularly, as in Wilshere's case, where extreme technical excellence is unsupported by basic physical heft. These players, we feel, must be stretched and scoured. They must be, in some basic sense, exposed. Perhaps – and here we shrug helplessly – they will even be ruined.

There are various ways in which we could have gone about ruining Wilshere. The most common approach is to make the aspirant good-good player feel terribly guilty about his indolent gifts. This seems to have done the trick with Joe Cole, a player who, some years back adopted a furiously hair-shirt style of play, puffing about the pitch, knees high, chest out, in a manner that can only be described as apologetic. Alternatively, we might choose to ruin Wilshere by making him go a little bit mad. This seemed to work with poor old Glenn Hoddle, chastised over his lack of biceps and routinely cast as "an outsider", a socks-down maverick in the play of some great cultural conspiracy. Presumably we're happy now.

Maybe things will be different with Wilshere. He has Wenger on his side. He has a seductively tumbling, pigeon-toed gait and a dinky, prompting, short-passing range. And still he seems so delicate, so crushable in his unabashed good-goodness. Competitive international debuts will come and go and Wilshere is good enough to thrive. But what happens next may be as much a test of us as it is of him.

Source: Barney Ronay, The Guardian on 9 Oct 10

The speed and simplicity of Arsenal's Jack Wilshere goes unrewarded

The 18-year-old's range of passing can disturb opposing defences and his short game is a joy to behold.

Sometimes the disappointment of losing must not override a constructive look at the positive points. That was the case at Stamford Bridge, with Jack Wilshere showing that we have a young English player of immense talent.

The two teams began the match with an adventurous philosophy. Both sets of full-backs galloped forward while the responsibility for bolting the door fell on Alex Song and the towering Abou Diaby for Arsenal and Mikel John Obi for Chelsea. With Song tight on Ramires and Diaby pushing on to Michael Essien, Wilshere was able to play his delightful one-touch game. He reminded me of Alan Ball with his economical early passing and simple but correct selection of which ball to play.

I have seen Wilshere develop from a young age since coming to Arsenal from Luton; in this game, playing among top, experienced internationals, he showed great maturity and lovely qualities. When he is on the ball he can see the picture and dispatch the pass with speed and simplicity. He will also immediately take up another position to receive the next pass. He is unselfish and has a range of pass which is surprising for such a diminutive figure.

Towards the end of the first half Chelsea's power from full-back was becoming the telling factor, with Arsenal contained. After Didier Drogba's goal, one suspected Chelsea might be strong enough to protect their lead and so it proved. Arsène Wenger would have been frustrated to see Arsenal's superior possession fail to pay off but he will not lose faith. Nor should he.

It was a game of good quality and there is no doubt that the persistent Arsenal knockers will once again criticise the result rather than look at the quality of the performance. A slightly fairer score would have been a draw but, as we know, possession is no longer nine-tenths of the law. Teams rely on fast counter-attacks and suck the opposition in. Last week Chelsea themselves suffered in a similar fashion against Manchester City.

There is, of course, a small downside, which pervades the Arsenal team. For all their good football, they are reluctant shooters. It is a state of mind; they want to score a "nice" goal.

Here they dominated the second period and stopped the Chelsea full-backs from venturing forward, yet Petr Cech was not tested enough. But should Arsenal combine their love for the ball with more purposeful goal attempts in the last 30 yards, their rhythmic rotations will prove worthwhile.

Source: David Pleat, The Guardian on 4 Oct 10

Wilshere hails Fabianski after crucial saves

Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere praised goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski as the Gunners claimed a 3-1 Champions League win away to Partizan Belgrade.

Fabianski, in for the injured Manuel Almunia, saved a second-half penalty to help Arsene Wenger's men record a second win in the group and also made another great stop right at the death.

"It's been hard for our 'keepers at the moment and that was a great reponse from him,'' Wilshere said on Sky Sports 4. "He made a good save at the end as well. Fair play to him.

"We were confident, we came here to get a win and that's what happened. We came here and we knew it was going to be a hard atmosphere, we dealt with it well and got the result.''

A power failure had earlier forced Arsenal to change for the game in the dark. "We had to use phone torches,'' said Wilshere.

Manager Arsene Wenger was also pleased with Fabianski's "faultless'' performance.

"Fabianski had a good game, we have seen the player tonight who we see in training. He had a faultless game,'' said the Arsenal boss. "I know it is in him. He got it out in the game tonight and hopefully that will give him the belief and confidence he needs.

"I am confident he will come out as a great 'keeper, I have always said that. We have to keep confidence in him and he needs to gain experience from games like this.''

Fabianski could be in line to play against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Wenger said: "At the moment Almunia is injured, we will have to see how his injury goes, but at the moment it is too early to say.''

Wenger felt his side, missing key men like captain Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie and Thomas Vermaelen, coped well with the early onslaught.

"Partizan gave us the game we expected - full of commitment, full of power on every break,'' he said. "We had a lot of the ball and created a lot of chances. However, we could not kill the game off and then we were always under threat.

"They came back with the penalty, afterwards we needed to keep the pace high and when we got the second goal, I thought we looked comfortable. For us it was important to win straight away after a big disappointment against West Brom.

"It puts us in a good position confidence-wise, Sunday is a big, big game for us. I believe we will go there with a desire to do extremely well.''

There was a chance the match would not have gone ahead if the floodlights had failed. Wenger said: "I thought it would be terrible to go home and not play. I encouraged UEFA when they asked me 'do you want to play even if one corner is off?', I said 'yes, as long as the referee is happy with it'. Overall it was acceptable.''

Partizan have now lost both of their matches, and look set for a battle with Braga for the Europa League place.

Coach Alexandar Stanojevic said: "The atmosphere during and after the match from our supporters tells us they were satisfied and we played a good game. However, when we got the red card it was difficult because it is tough enough to play against Arsenal when you have 11, but when you have 10, it is nearly impossible.

"We have to admit, though, that Arsenal were a better team, so we have to go on.''

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 29 Sep 10

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

All right Jack

Arsene Wenger believes Jack Wilshere is fully focused on the job in hand as the Arsenal youngster prepares to let his football grab the headlines again ahead of the visit of Bolton.

England Under-21s coach Stuart Pearce felt the 18-year-old had "taken his eye off the ball'' following his arrest and subsequent bail in the wake of a late-night fracas in Kensington, which resulted in Wilshere being left on the bench for the European Championship qualifier in Portugal.

However, the young Gunner helped galvanise England when introduced as a second-half substitute against Lithuania in Colchester on Tuesday afternoon, as the Young Lions booked their place in the play-offs with a 3-0 victory.

Wilshere - who holds the record for Arsenal's youngest first-team appearance in the Premier League - spent a spell on loan at Bolton last season, and is now very much in Wenger's plans.

"I have spoken to him since his arrest and he is focused,'' said the Gunners boss.

"I believe he is always focused. When he is on the football pitch, he wants the ball and wants to play.

"It could have been a concern of Pearce, but I believe Jack is a happy boy on the football pitch.''

Arsenal are currently second in the Barclays Premier League table, having beaten Blackburn before the international break.

However, the Gunners resume without Robin van Persie, injured at Ewood Park, Theo Walcott - sidelined for six weeks after damaging his ankle while away with England - and centre-half Thomas Vermaelen, who picked up an Achilles problem playing for Belgium.

Wenger admits there is little a Premier League manager can do, but keep their fingers crossed and pray for their jet-setting squad to return unscathed.

"It is frustrating, but we have to deal with it,'' said the Arsenal boss, who will have France winger Samir Nasri available following successful knee surgery.

"Statistically you know when there is an international break, if you get everybody back without injury it is a little miracle.

"Sometimes players go on different pitches in smaller countries with a different way of training, but we know now it is part of being a big club.

"When people play international games, you do not always get them back.''

Facing Bolton is now a much different prospect under the management style of Owen Coyle.

Wenger, though, expects a strong challenge at Emirates Stadium, where new signing Sebastien Squillaci is set for a debut in central defence.

He said: "Bolton have a good mixture of a direct game and football on the ground.

"They can be a very dangerous side, they have a good mixture of a technical game and a direct game.''

Meanwhile, Bolton midfielder Stuart Holden has his own personal match-day analyst - mum Moira.

She records every game at home in Houston, Texas then gives her son a rating over the phone on his performance.

Holden 25, will get the information first hand as his mum will be in the stand when Bolton face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

Holden said: "There is a lot of Premier League coverage in America and my mum records every game.

"She gives me her take after every match on how I have played. I take bits of it on board! She is an avid football fan and obviously an avid fan of her three children.

"It is fantastic she is actually is coming over for the Arsenal game. Hopefully we will get a victory.''

Holden is aiming to retain his place in the side in this his first full season at the Reebok Stadium after a short spell at Sunderland earlier in his career.

The United States international then went on to build a fine reputation in Major League Soccer before deciding to try his luck in England again.

Holden, who secured a contract at Bolton after a trial, said: "It was a bit stop start for me last season and I was injured.

"Now I have had a pre-season and the experience of the World Cup I want to make a big impact at Bolton.

"I am feeling 100% physically and really looking forward to building up my fitness, getting some more games and really pushing on.''

Manager Coyle will hand a first league start to Hungarian goalkeeper Adam Bogdan as Jussi Jaaskelainen is suspended.

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 10 Sep 10

Wilshere gives Arsenal fallback for Arsenal

Marouane Chamakh scored on his home debut for Arsenal in the Emirates Cup yesterday and took home the man-of-the-match award after a promising performance against one of Europe's powerhouses. But arguably the most eye-catching performance came from Jack Wilshere, the club's leading home-grown prospect.

While both of Arsenal's summer signings did well, Laurent Koscielny looking composed alongside Thomas Vermaelen in defence after a reported £10 million move from Lorient, it was Wilshere who caught the eye. The 18-year-old local, who was voted man of the match in both matches in this tournament a year ago and spent half of last season on loan to Bolton, confirmed his growing reputation with a dynamic performance in a deep midfield role.

"Bolton wanted to take him again, but I think I will keep him," Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, said. "He can play on the flank and in the middle, behind the striker and deeper as well, so he should get a few games."

He did not look overmatched against a Milan team who were without Massimo Ambrosini, Filippo Inzaghi, Andrea Pirlo and Ronaldinho, but still included enough quality to test Arsenal's own depleted squad, which was missing Alex Song, Abou Diaby and Denilson as well as Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie, who are on post-World Cup leave.

Emmanuel Eboué and Koscielny had to make timely tackles when Alexandre Pato threatened to embarrass them with his pace, and Milan went closest when Mathieu Flamini, the former Arsenal midfield player who was booed throughout, saw a volley from 22 yards deflected by Koscielny on to the angle of post and crossbar.

Arsenal's best effort up to that point had been a glancing header by Vermaelen that demanded a fine save from Christian Abbiati, but after 36 minutes Andrey Arshavin held off Gennaro Gattuso and slipped the ball through for Chamakh, who had just stayed onside, to steer it past Abbiati.

Until then, the Morocco forward, a Bosman signing from Bordeaux, had looked slightly off the pace, but after the goal he developed a swagger and a clever flick after he had been sent through by Wilshere set up Arshavin for a shot that Abbiati palmed away.

The failure to score a second cost Arsenal the victory when Pato beat Vermaelen to nod home Clarence Seedorf's free-kick with 13 minutes to go, drawing Wenger's only criticism of Lukasz Fabianski, who will be replaced in goal for today's match against Celtic by Manuel Almunia: "I didn't feel anyone took charge of the organisation and that's a little bit down to the goalkeeper, but overall I thought he had a good game."

Gianluca Zambrotta almost won it when he cannoned a 20-yarder off the bar three minutes from time.

"It was a good test for the new players, the young players and the team," Wenger said. "It was a good first game for Chamakh, a good presence up front. He and Koscielny did very well. We wanted a forward who plays for the team and works hard and at the back somebody who is calm, can play out from the back and read the game well. Their attitude is good and they can only improve."

Massimiliano Allegri, the Milan coach, ruled out the possibility of David Beckham, who watched the match, returning to the club when he recovers from the ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered last season.

Source: Nick Szczepanik, The Independent on 1 Aug 10