Arsenal: Jack Wilshere isn’t good enough anymore

Arsenal used to have their entire future banked on Jack Wilshere, but given what has happened over the course of this crucial year, he isn’t enough anymore.

Maybe I’m being cynical. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this thirty seconds after seeing Arsenal succumb to their own weaknesses against Atletico Madrid, getting bounced when all they needed to extend their life was a single goal. But honestly, it’s been a long time coming.

There isn’t an Arsenal fan out there that doesn’t love Jack Wilshere. Everything about him is everything Arsenal. It’s that simple to boil down. But emotion does not govern this team anymore, and that being the case, it is time to accept that Wilshere is not good enough for the standard that he expects of himself at this club.

What does that mean? It means that Wilshere wants big things for himself, as he should. And he wants them at Arsenal. He wants to be the star man, the captain. But at the standard that he is now producing on a consistent basis, he isn’t good enough.

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Squad player? Sure. Rotational option? Absolutely. Let him continue to fight it out. But he is not good enough to be in the starting XI in big matches such as these and I don’t think you need to look much farther than this match to see why.

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This club has a massive problem with individual mistakes. But they aren’t physically deficient, or not good enough. These are mental mistakes.

In a big match such as this, there can be no mental lapses. No naps in the middle of play. Jack Wilshere was caught out multiple times as he failed to understand the situation, failed to mark his man or, worse, just loafed. It was an abysmal performance that was kept afloat only by his two chances created. 

He was loose with the ball – again – gave the ball away when he got into trouble – again – and yet again proved that when put in between two go-getters like Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey, Wilshere suffocates and disappears.

Xhaka and Ramsey combined for 191 touches, as they absolutely dominated the game in the middle of the pitch, defending and attacking with zest and enthusiasm. Wilshere only had 45 touches.

He was not a difference maker in a match that required him to be. The worst part is that this has been a trend. Wilshere has been a difference maker in years past but this year, Wilshere has steadily trended downwards, proving time and again that he is not the player he once was.

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If there is a deal on the table for him, he needs to scramble for a pen and sign it because he won’t find anything better somewhere else.