Arsenal: Jack Wilshere can be impact player in midfield

With transfer rumours silencing significantly recently a midfield addition is looking unlikely. Could Jack Wilshere make a return and impact Arsenal’s midfield?

The match against Leicester highlighted many positive and negative aspects of this Arsenal side. While many will harp on about both our poor defending and great offensive creativity. What was more noticeable for me was the lack of depth in the midfield.

With Aaron Ramsey lacking match fitness, we started with Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka in the midfield. Xhaka’s progress over the past six months has been substantial and he finally looks like the man we paid £35m to sign.

However, his partner Elneny was less impressive. Far too many times the Egyptian was too passive with his passing. His energy is always a plus point and was shown against Chelsea the week before. But he lacks the dynamism to be a sure-fire starter every week for a side chasing the Premier League title.

Aaron Ramsey does have the qualities Elneny lacks and has been forging a blossoming partnership with Xhaka. The two look impressive in a tandem and bring great prowess to Arsenal’s midfield. But it is beyond those two where the problems lie.

Multiple times both Francis Coquelin and Elneny have shown us that they aren’t of the highest quality required to cut it in such an arduous league. As depth options they are perfect and should definitely be given run outs in the secondary competitions such as the League cup and Europa league.

It is for this reason that fans have been yearning for another midfield signing. Names such as Jean Michael Seri and Leon Goretzka have been thrown around the tabloids. But there haven’t been significant enough links to make such a transfer likely.

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It looks as if Wenger will focus more on trimming his squad over the next few weeks rather than any new additions. Looking at the back page of the match day programme of the community shield that seems logical with 33 players too many to satisfy with game time.

However, one player that I hope isn’t sold is Jack Wilshere. Despite injuries and little luck over recent seasons there is no denying his talent. If the pass-master Xavi says he has something special then we shouldn’t take those words lightly.

Wilshere could be the perfect player to provide depth and competition for the starting duo of Xhaka and Ramsey. If he can sustain his fitness for long enough there is certainly a role for the Englishman to play this season.

His acceleration and agility could exploit tired defences as a substitute. And Wilshere could even stake his claim for a starting spot by performing well in the secondary competitions.

I’m confident Wenger would put him above both Coquelin and Elneny in the midfield pecking order should be remain fit. Wenger has always had a soft spot for Wilshere. I hope Le Prof gives him one last season to prove himself.

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Of course I would personally like to see Wenger go out and buy a shiny new midfielder like Seri but that possibility is dwindling. However, if Wilshere can go out and perform this season then I’d happily stick with the midfield stock we’ve got.

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