Arsenal: Jack Wilshere has superstar-sized hurdles to overcome

Arsenal seem to have a future for Jack Wilshere, but he really needs to overcome these superstar-sized hurdle in his path before he can proceed.

Arsenal have been exercising incredible care and caution in regards to Jack Wilshere. They keep him out of any and all high-octane matches, when possible, and limit him solely to mid-week fixtures in the Europa League and in the League Cup.

While it’s hardly a strategy to be criticized, as injuries have to be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, as in how to avoid them. It’s still a bummer that he hasn’t been given more of a chance at the Premier League level. Especially against Tottenham, a team that he has, well, a bit of a history with.

But for as good as Wilshere has been, he has had outings here he has also been pretty poor. Not detrimentally poor, just really hit or miss and I feel like FC Koln was another example of him having a lot of positives offset by a bunch of negatives.

And that isn’t like Wilshere. That’s more like Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez. Almost a combination of them. Such that I feel like Wilshere has a superstar-like hurdle to overcome, in more ways than one.

For starters, he really needs to be more confident in shooting. Maybe this match actually helped him over that, though. He was hesitant all damn day, afraid to cut loose. He would take one touch too many far too often and it led to surrendered possession. Which is a lot like Mesut Ozil, unable to shoot, and Alexis Sanchez, taking one touch too many,

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He didn’t start actually firing at the goal until we were a goal down. When he did though, it was a huge threat, so hopefully he sees that and is reminded how well he can actually shoot.

It was just a bit of a wonky performance from Wilshere but he’s had quite a few of these, which leads to my major point here. He is falling into the same category of the two superstars Ozil and Alexis in that the consistency is a bit lacking. He has the fight and desire like Alexis and he has the creativity and passing like Ozil but he can’t seem to link together consecutive positive performances.

It was clear during the match that Aaron Ramsey is still the superior option in that Premier League midfield. And that may be a bit nervy for some, as Wilshere is certainly getting antsy, but we can’t just throw him back into the fray if he isn’t ready for it.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against FC Koln

It was a disappointing match. So much of what could have been rather than what ended up actually happening.

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