After a couple of weeks back in full Arsenal training, Jack Wilshere played his first (vaguely) competitive football for 14 months, starting and playing 63 minutes of Arsenal U21’s 1-0 defeat to West Brom at the Hawthorns.

A welcome presence

Lining up alongside fellow long-term absentee Emmanuel Frimpong, Wilshere gave an air of class to proceedings, and his return naturally raised the profile of the match beyond that of a reserve game.

Starting in an advanced role behind the striker, Wilshere by all accounts looked rusty but still influenced the game while he was on the pitch.

Indeed, it wasn’t long after the first whistle that a live tweet said: “Wilshere charges through the midfield and slips a lovely ball behind the defence”, followed by “Wilshere clips a lofted pass...”. Sounds like 2010/11 all over again, dunnit?

Give him time

While his return to actual playing action is exciting, and getting some minutes means he’s closer than ever to a first-team comeback, you have to remember that he is only 20 and has been out for 14 months. It will take him some time to get back up to speed. Hence you can expect some shaky performances, and Diaby-esque loss of possession.

This doesn’t mean he’s ‘done a Ramsey’ (Which is a falsehood anyway) and lost all his ability, he’ll just be rusty. Eventually he will be back to his best, and Arsenal can enjoy the Arteta-Wilshere-Cazorla axis that will have 100% pass accuracy every game and never lose possession. Or at least not very much.

What were we missing?

With Jack Wilshere playing for Arsenal looking more and more likely in the immediate future, perhaps we should refresh ourselves with what he accomplished during his breakout 2010/11 season:

Appearances: 49

Goals: 3

Assists: 9

While that doesn’t look too impressive, remember he accomplished this from a deeper role, similar to the box-to-box position Abou Diaby’s played recently. While assists are of course important, he made 45 key passes, which was only one less than Fabregas that year. (A key pass is an assist without the goal at the end. Basically the same thing).

Let’s hope there are no further setbacks.

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