Return of Wilshere enough to lift Arsenal

Arsenal 1 QPR 0

By Saturday evening, he was still at it, albeit by then the manager was working overtime to dampen expectations surrounding Jack Wilshere.

It was clear which function he preferred.

Wilshere wasn’t supposed to be in the starting line-up. Wenger had insisted on Friday the midfielder would at best be on the bench and he extended this smokescreen to the player himself, only disclosing his starting 11 at a team meeting at 10:30 on Saturday morning.

That element of surprise only intensified the feeling of excitement at Wilshere’s return for his first start in 17 months after a torrid spell of ankle and knee problems.

With Wilshere on the pitch, the frustration generated by insipid successive defeats to Norwich and Schalke that found focus in the bitterness and rancour at the AGM when the club’s prudent business model was severely criticised, was forgotten.

The saviour was back and it was immediately clear that Arsenal, and England, expects.

A weighty burden for any player then; for a 20-year-old, a potentially crippling load. Yet while they may not look it, Wilshere’s shoulders are clearly broad enough to handle most things and the midfielder’s 66-minute performance offered a combination of immediate satisfaction and the tantalising prospect that there is much more to come.

The problem of course will bemanaging his return properly and while Wenger has made it clear caution will be the key — he has already declared he will tell Roy Hodgson to exclude the player from England’s friendly international against Sweden next month.

“Words cannot describe it. I was just running around smiling,” he said, before placing his enthusiasm in context. “It’s been tough. I’m lucky I’ve got my family and my son who helped me through it. There are some days when you came into the physio room and the lads were going out, you just do not want to be there because after 10 or 11 months it gets to you.”

The relief was clearly shared by Wilshere’s team-mates.

“He’s an amazing player,” said Thomas Vermaelen, the Arsenal captain. “I think he can be one of the best midfielders in the world because what he did in his first year was great. What I’ve seen today is really positive.”

It needed to be because if Arsenal had failed to beat a QPR side who remain without a win this season, attention would have shifted back to the bigger picture.

Ultimately it took the 82nd minute dismissal of QPR defender Stephane Mbia for a needless kick on Vermaelen to undermine the visitors with Mikel Arteta claiming the winner two minutes later with a scrambled goal that should have been ruled out for offside.

Wenger has every reason to believe his side will improve, particularly when Wilshere and Santi Cazorla develop an understanding, but this game did nothing to counter the belief that the replacements for a succession of high profile departures over the last two years represent a significant trading down.

Wilshere’s observation about his new team-mates — “last time I played it was with [Cesc] Fabregas and [Samir] Nasri and now there’s Arteta and Cazorla so it’s like a new team and a new me” — highlighted the turnover and while the players he mentioned represent a reasonable exchange, the same could not be said of the comparison between Olivier Giroud and the departed Robin van Persie.

And while there remains such a disparity on the balance sheet of talent in and talent out, it will take more than the return of Wilshere to silence the doubters at the Emirates Stadium.

QPR manager Mark Hughes has a different kind of problem to wrestle with as he attempts to mould a team from the collection of individuals recruited last summer. It didn’t help that Mbia lost his head because the visitors had looked more than capable of claiming at least a point.

“The chairman watches every game we play and has been of the view that we all have, that in terms of performance and what we have been producing football-wise, he feels more than happy because he feels we have the potential to win games in the Premier League,” said the manager.

“We are producing good football, it’s not just against teams in and around us, it’s against the top teams in the country, some of the top teams in Europe. As the consequence of that we take great belief.”

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Mannone 6; Sagna 7, Mertesacker 6, Vermaelen 7, Santo 5; Arteta 7, Wilshire 8 (Walcott 66, 6); Ramsey 6, Cazorla 6, Podolski 6 (Gervinho 70, 6, Arshavin 82, 6); Giroud 5.

QPR (4-4-2): Cesar 8; Bosingwa 5, Mbia 4, Nelsen 7, Traore 6 (Onuoha 73, 6); Wright-Phillips 5 (Mackie 80, 6), Granero 7, Diakite 6, Taarabt 7; Zamora 5 (Cisse 73, 6), Hoilett, 6.

Referee: A Taylor.