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What Wenger had to say on Wilshere & Walcott after Arsenal thrashed BATE

By on December 8, 2017

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Arsene Wenger has heaped praise on Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott after their impressive displays during Arsenal’s 6-0 thrashing of BATE Borisov last night.

Wilshere got another important 90 minutes under his belt as he started in a central attacking midfield role and produced an excellent performance that saw him run the show for much of the game.

The 25-year-old scored his first goal for two-and-a-half years as he rifled home a lovely left-footed effort to make it 3-0 shortly before half-time while he also assisted Mohamed Elneny for our sixth goal late on.

It was another timely reminder of just what Jack is capable of when he’s fully fit and Wenger has admitted the midfielder is looking sharp again so hopefully he’ll be knocking on the first team door.

Walcott has endured a frustrating campaign but he produced his best display of the season last night as he set-up two goals, won a penalty and got himself on the score-sheet.

He may not have dominated the game like Wilshere did but Theo was involved in the majority of the matches key moments so it was good to see Arsene also reserve some praise for the attacker afterwards.

Wenger told Arsenal.com:

on Wilshere…
Look, Jack’s moving forward. You could see tonight that he is moving forward and ready to play now. He is sharp, he is quick, he is incisive again with his dribble and technically he was very good tonight. I would say for 70 minutes he was dominant in midfield on the creative side and that is very good news for us.

on Walcott…
Of course, he played very well. He is like Jack, he was very sharp today.

I think it’s safe to say despite last night’s performance, Walcott is still going to struggle to force his way in to the starting eleven on a consistent basis but Wilshere must be getting close now.

I still think his best chance of breaking in to the side is in central midfield – probably ahead of Granit Xhaka – as I don’t see Wenger playing him ahead of Aaron Ramsey, Alexis Sanchez or Mesut Ozil any time soon.