Arsène Wenger welcomed his English contingent back from national team duty this week encouraged for the future, but also convinced that Jack Wilshere is best used as a more creative hub than in the deeper position he occupies for his country.
Wilshere will revert to a more offensively minded playmaker role for Arsenal against Hull City on Saturday. It has been telling that Wenger selected him to play as the No10 even before Mesut Özil’s injury. With the German out of the picture for the next few weeks, Wilshere now carries even more responsibility for bringing invention to Arsenal’s attack.
“He is not a ball-winner,” says Wenger. “I believe he is more a guy who you want to get close to the final third. To keep him deep you take a big part of his efficiency away. He is a guy who likes to penetrate when there is many people, he can provoke free-kicks, he can create openings. It would be detrimental to his strengths in a position that is not his strength.”
Having excelled for Arsenal and England over the past month, the best of Wilshere is emerging, Wenger believes. “He is back, physically, to where he was before. He has more experience and I think he mixed well his long balls and kept his individual capacity to make a difference. That is what being a midfielder is about.”
Wenger was delighted to watch five of his players in action for England. “I am very proud when I see five England players wearing the Arsenal shirt and that we have [Theo] Walcott, who is not there,” he says. “I support France and England. It is simple. I am very proud because for long years I have been accused of not developing English players.
“But it shows you, as well, that people now think to create a criteria of protection – that you have to put some English players on the bench, you have to put some English players in the squad. It shows you, when they are good, they play.” He recalled being told about rules in Serbia which demanded three home-grown players started top-division matches. “But after five minutes, everyone had changed the three players,” he said.
Walcott played 45 minutes for Arsenal’s Under-21 side against Blackburn last night as he stepped up his recovery from the knee injury which kept him out of the World Cup. The creation of an English core happened by a combination of design and opportunity. “First of all, we gave chances to players from our academy. I try to buy the best English players, Walcott and [Calum] Chambers are a consequence of that. I cannot say the [Danny] Welbeck situation was planned for five years. We do some work so that these players are together for a long time at Arsenal and develop together. Even for England it’s important. If they can do well at Arsenal and play for England, England will be strong. To have five or six players in the team, they know how to play [together]. The confidence grows.”
Wenger also hopes there will be a deeper-rooted loyalty that keeps English players at the club. “It’s easier for them. When you buy a player from Barcelona, at some stage he might want to go back to Barcelona because Barcelona is a big club as well,” he noted drily.
Steve Bruce hopes to relive the club’s “greatest day” when his Hull side visit the Emirates, but wants to leave with a different result. His side led 2-0 in last season’s FA Cup final between the sides before being overhauled 3-2 in extra time. “The last time we played against them it was the Cup final …it was the greatest day for a lot of people,” he said. “We played to our maximum and it was extra time before we lost.
“Everyone had a wonderful day but we lost and it could have been so much more. We were close to pulling off one of the big shocks in an FA Cup final but it didn’t quite happen. We just ran out of a little steam. We gave a hell of an account of ourselves and if we can repeat that on Saturday, that will be great. If we do and we’re not quite good enough again, fine.”
