Jack Wilshere must have broken a few mirrors as a lad. His injury record teeters precariously on the tightrope between “unfortunate” and “catastrophic” and his latest dip in form could not have been timed worse.

The one time in recent years that a central midfielder did not want to lose his place in Arsenal’s first time was September 2013.

The arrivals of Mesut Ozil and Mathieu Flamini in the last transfer window, the renaissance of Aaron Ramsey and the returns to fitness of Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky have coincided with a purple patch of form in the Premier League and Champions League.

With some critics suggesting Wilshere has not kicked on in the way everyone thought he would a couple of seasons ago, and having been dropped for last night’s 2-0 win over Napoli, Wilshere must fear for his immediate chances of football in a World Cup season. He will surely have been relieved to feature as a 63rd minute substitute in last night’s game.

But he’s told London’s Evening Standard that he’s faced a similar situation before and expects to come through this new challenge:

“When I broke into the team, the situation was similar. There were players like Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song and Abou Diaby at the club but this will bring out the best in me and it will bring the best out of the other players as well.”

Italians dominated by Gunners’ midfield

Arsenal dominated Rafa Benitez’s Italian side and Ozil in particular shone, scoring a blinder after just eight minutes. By the time he set up Olivier Giroud to score a second goal just seven minutes later, the match was as good as over.

With Ozil and Ramsey again combining superbly – Ramsey set up Ozil’s opener – Wilshere will be hoping that Arsène Wenger will employ a policy of squad rotation over the coming months if he is to remain in Roy Hodgson’s thinking for Brazil next summer.

And as Wilshere acknowledges, the club still has one of the players of last season, Santi Cazorla, to return to fitness:

“We still have Santi Cazorla to come back from injury and if we can keep everyone fit, we are going to be real contenders in all four competitions. We have not really had this competition for places over the last few years, so we are all excited and we just have to keep it up now.”

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