Jack Wilshere is ready for more Arsenal game time after Europa League show, says Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger says Jack Wilshere is ready to more regularly return to Arsenal’s first team in the Premier League, after another “sharp” and “dominant” performance in the Europa League. The midfielder scored the third goal in his side’s 6-0 win over Bate Borisov at the Emirates, marking his first strike since May 2015, and maybe now a proper chance of getting back into the team after a frustrating time since then.

“Look, Jack’s moving forward,” Wenger said. “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.”

Wenger also praised Mathieu Debuchy and Theo Walcott – who both also scored – for similar resilience.

“Yeah, they [Debuchy and Jack] are similar two players who have been out for a long time. He has had setbacks many times but now he’s fit and ready to play and you could see that all the players who played tonight, first of all it was basically a Premier League team because they all have Premier League experience and they all have the quality to be in the Premier League.

“Of course, [Walcott] played very well. He is like Jack, he was very sharp today.”