Once Arsenal's Golden Boy, what’s wrong with Jack Wilshere?

Jack Wilshere made his return to the Arsenal first-team against Newcastle after completing a two game suspension for a gesture towards the Manchester City fans during the Gunners’ 6-3 defeat.

He started in the number 10 role with Tomas Rosicky starting alongside Mathieu Flamini in the centre of midfield. Both Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil were missing through injury so the onus was on young Englishman to provide forward thrust in the Arsenal midfield.

Obviously Wilshere’s best and preferred position is playing in the centre of midfield, so he can make bursting runs utilising his excellent close control. So it was interesting to see the pair used the way they were but whilst Rosicky flourished Wilshere initially struggled to stamp his authority on the game.

His Performance Score of -2 was disappointing although as his Heat Map shows he was extremely involved. Often this season Wilshere has been started on the right and he’s been able to cut inside and in many ways that made him much more of a threat.

Playing in the middle makes it trickier for him because he is afforded less time and space but even still a player of his ability should have worked out a way around this.

His pass completion rate of 83% is perfectly respectable and he did mange to create three chances for his team-mates. He also came close to scoring himself but he lost out on a lot of one-on-one duels, winning just four of his 11 take ons. He failed to make any interceptions either and he was given a bit of a bruising from Newcastle’s midfield, in particular, Cheick Tiote.

It probably didn’t help Wilshere either that Santi Cazorla also had a poor game. When Cazorla fires he provides the perfect platform to work with the likes of Wilshere and Ramsey but the Spaniard was also off his game. Neither Olivier Giroud nor Theo Walcott excelled either meaning that apart from Rosicky the entire Arsenal front line weren’t at their flowing best.

They were hassled well by Newcastle’s midfield and Tiote was actually lucky to remain on the pitch with some of his challenges. It would be unfair to criticise Wilshere individually for the performance of the Arsenal team but he certainly contributed. A lot of the Arsenal players were playing their third game in under a week so their rustiness can be explained.

Wilshere however was playing his first game in just over a fortnight so he should have been fresh, perhaps not match fit, but fresh. Arsenal will need him back to his best when Cardiff visit the Emirates Stadium on New Year’s Day.