Arsenal: Jack Wilshere a free hit worth swinging for

Jack Wilshere looked as though his best form is re-discoverable against Doncaster Rovers on Wednesday night. He is a free hit for Arsenal that is worth swinging for.

Arsenal were far edgier than they needed to be against Doncaster Rovers on Wednesday night. After a blistering first half an hour, in which there were wonderfully cutting and incisive, opening up their visitors with ease, the foot came off the gas and the pressure eased, such that, by the end of the tie, they were simply happy to see their name in the next round. On another night, it could have been a very different result.

However, while it was just a slender one-goal that separated the two sides come full-time, Arsenal should have been out of sight with the plethora of clear chances they created earlier on. Olivier Giroud struck the bar, several whipped Ainsley Maitland-Niles crosses didn’t quite fall right, and Theo Walcott, early in the second half, wastefully missed a simple one-on-one that he should have dispatched.

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Nonetheless, other than putting the ball in the back of the net, it was an impressive and vibrant start from the Gunners. And there was one man, in particular, who seemed to be at the heart of it all: Jack Wilshere. Playing in a free-roaming box-to-box role, Wilshere was at his orchestrating best, pulling the proverbial strings, gliding past defenders with his archetypal shift of balance, probing the Doncaster defence with testing, penetrating passes.

After the game, though, when asked about Wilshere’s promising display, Arsene Wenger was quick to temper expectations. And rightly so. Wenger highlighted the level of competition and the disparaging intensity from a full-throttled Premier League game as reasons to not be overexcited with Wilshere:

"“I wanted to leave him on to give him 90 minutes and overall I think it was an ideal game for him to gain confidence and fitness. We’ll see after that how he responds. Normally he’s alright after the game. I think you have to put this game into perspective as well, it does not exactly have the intensity of a Premier League game. But it’s important for him to build him up gradually.”"

Wenger is absolutely spot on. There is no reason to overhype a performance for 30 minutes against a languishing League One side who lacked any semblance of defensive shape or industry. However, that does not change what Wilshere is to Arsenal this season. Wilshere is a free hit. Nothing is expected of him; he is not relied upon to be a prominent and key contributor to the squad. He is simply a roll of a dice where there is nothing to be lost.

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That is how he should be treated this season: a shot a re-inspiring his best form. Because if that is possible, then, suddenly, Arsenal have another imperious midfielder to slot into the side to further their control and their dominance of games. The likelihood of Wilshere returning to even a fraction of the player he used to be is slim. But it is a shot that is worth taking. After all, what is there to lose?

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