Bournemouth Fan View: Why Jack Wilshere's time at the Cherries could define his Arsenal career

As an AFC Bournemouth fan Jack Wilshere has acted like a fuse to my brain – he stops me worrying whenever the thought of AFCB being relegated pops into my head. After all, how could we possibly go down with Jack Wilshere in our team. It couldn’t happen…right?

Sadly the fuse has now blown, and after the last month or so I’m well aware that the mere presence of Wilshere is no guarantee of our Premier League survival.

What I do know, however, is that if he does help us survive it could define his career moving forward. But I’ll get to that later.

Very rarely can a single player save a struggling team, no matter how good they are – and Wilshere is unfortunately no exception to this rule and he has often struggled to turn the tide when we’ve found ourselves being overpowered by teams. Which, of late, has been almost every week. It’s not been pretty to watch.

That’s not to say Wilshere hasn’t been well worth bringing in on loan from Arsenal though. After an understandably slow start he’s been wonderful to watch – being an expert at making space for himself and rarely losing the ball even when surrounded by opposition players.

Whenever he does actually lose the ball – a rare occurrence indeed – there’s usually a few surprised gasps from people around me at home games.

As a result it can be depressing watching Wilshere when the rest of our team is struggling, with the England international showing visible frustration at the lack of movement by our forward line. Wilshere’s assist for Josh King’s first goal against Everton on Saturday shows what he can do when our players are in sync with him – but even that goal required him to gesture to King where he wanted the Norweigan to run.

Only rarely have I seen Wilshere have a real stinker for us either, with our capitulation against Hull City being a rare example of the on-loan Arsenal man fading out of a game. Even when we’re generally misfiring as a team he’s usually been toiling away trying to get something going after all, such as in his second half cameo against Burnley at Turf Moor – where he took control of midfield but we just couldn’t take advantage in the final third.

He’s also won over AFC Bournemouth fans off the pitch, with his tweets almost solely focused on AFCB affairs – much to the chagrin of many Arsenal fans. The posts of his kids in Bournemouth gear (see tweet below) being the, er, cherry on the cake. Sure, it’s almost certainly a press assistant writing these posts, but they’re nice to see all the same.

With our recent poor form and a relegation battle beckoning many are beginning to think Wilshere would press the eject button on his AFC Bournemouth adventure given the chance though – but I truly don’t believe that’s the case.

There’s no doubt he might be getting frustrated at our defence – I know I am – but the same could be said for most of our team. Harry Arter was incandescent with rage after Simon Francis’s ridiculously foolhardy rick gifted Everton their third goal on Saturday for instance.

When I look at Wilshere I don’t see someone running for the exit though, but a player that is invested in AFC Bournemouth and one that wants us to survive. His reactions after we concede yet another goal (see picture below) suggest that he is far from treating this season on the south coast as a gloried training exercise. Sure, professional pride plays a part in that – but you can always tell if a player is putting 100% in for the team. And Wilshere certainly is.

It’s a good thing he is too, as I think where we end up this season could have a bearing on Wilshere’s career – in the short term at the very least. If he manages to play a defining role in keeping us up it could propel him to even greater things, namely a place in Arsenal’s first team.

After a series of pathetically limp performances in recent weeks it’s clear to everyone that the Gunners are lacking leaders, especially in midfield. Mesut Özil is a wonderful talent, but he simply doesn’t have the grit and steel to gain control in the middle of the park against the best teams.

Granit Xhaka doesn’t look hugely convincing as a defensive midfielder either – I could tell that from his performance at Dean Court alone. Then you’re left with few other unconvincing central midfielders at the north London club. Aaron Ramsey is all washed up, with both Mohamed Elneny and Francis Coquelin still very much works in progress.

With this current midfield malaise at Arsenal, Wilshere could therefore look to stake a claim to a first team place in Arene Wenger’s side when his loan spell here ends. He has a lot of respect from his teammates at Arsenal too, as Alex Iwobi’s recent comments about him show: “I just watch what he does, especially as I grew up as a No.10 and he’s a No.10.”

He can certainly put in the ground work here to make his return to north London a fruitful one, and if he continues to put in commanding performances in an AFC Bournemouth shirt he’ll certainly get Wenger’s attention. The Frenchman will certainly be thinking Wilshere could do the same at Arsenal, especially with better players (sorry Franno) around him – and could well be what helps the Gunners regain the champion’s mentality it lost many years ago.

If Wilshere decides to throw in the metaphorical towel and simply watch us go down though – especially after the good position we were in at the start of December – I feel it could have an adverse reaction on his confidence when he goes back to Arsenal, and could subsequently lead to him struggling to nail down a first team place. He could even be shipped out on loan again.

I believe that Wilshere has the strength of personality and sheer talent to help us survive however, and by doing that it will help revive his career at Arsenal. We just need our defence to hold firm for once so his good work in the middle of the park is properly rewarded…