Jack Wilshere says scoring against BATE Borisov came as something of a relief having gone 928 days without a goal for the Gunners.
The England international crashed home a left foot effort on 43 minutes as the Gunners romped to a 6-0 dead-rubber victory in their final game of the group stages of the Europa League.
In addition to an own goal, Wilshere was joined on the scoresheet by Mathieu Debuchy, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Mohamed Elneny as Arsene Wenger’s fringe players enjoyed a fruitful night in attack.
“It’s a bit of a relief [that I scored],” Wilshere told BT Sport after the game. “It’s one of those games – it didn’t mean anything because we had topped the group.
“It’s one of those games you need to be in the right mind – we enjoyed it. We’re happy to go into the next round. All we can do when we get our opportunity is give the manager a headache.”
That was @JackWilshere's first goal for us since he did this against West Brom, 928 days ago ? pic.twitter.com/CSbduf1X4X
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) December 7, 2017
Theo Walcott grabbed three assists on top of his goal and was enthused by the chance to get some game time.
“The boss told us to enjoy ourselves,” Walcott told BT Sport. “We played with a lot of freedom. Defensively we were solid. Obviously, it’s nice to get all these goals.
“There is plenty of competition when you play for Arsenal. We are doing our best to give the manager a headache to pick us for the team.
“We were very professional tonight. We will see in time what’s going to happen.”
Wilshere was class tonight… always looking to pass forward and make something happen….
Wilshere was a high risk high reward player before Sanchez made it cool.
Theo will always be useful in a 4-2-3-1.
Who took the corner in the tweet video?
Ozil
Wilshere was brilliant. I hope he stays patient and realizes Wenger is being very cautioius with him this season. By the end of the year, I expect he’ll be playing all the big league matches.
It’s a shame Wilshere is yet another player with only months left on his contract:-( We should at least keep him if losing Ozil
And I will bet you will blame the manager for getting Wilshere to sign a contract if he gets injured again.
True and if he goes elsewhere and becomes what we all hope he can then we all know who will get the blame for that too lol
Poor Wenger. I can’t believe they’re so sadistic. I hope he’s got plenty of ibuprofen.
Superb display…Jack is back!
He had the ability to drive forward with the ball which engages the opponents allowing for space to be created.
Some excellent distribution. Linked well with Giroud but also released Walcott quickly playing to his strengths.
A mature performance and certainly an option for us in that link role that Ramsey plays.
WILSHERE HAPPY, WALCOTT RELIEVED HIMSELF
Note to Wenger…Jack should go ice skating more often and bring Theo along.
And welbeck should stop ice skating ON THE PITCH
Thought debuchy had a solid game tonight. Maybe start him a bit in the PL to get the best out of Hector?
ha, Walcott was happy to stroll around the pitch and play his usual shit game
You obviously didn’t watch the match then!