Jack Wilshere has thrown his hat unabashedly into the ring for Arsenal’s attacking options, there is no doubting that.

After single-handedly dismantling Rangers 3-0 last night (highlights below) and bringing on some real verve against Athletico Madrid the day before, he has every man and his dog clamouring for a starting place in the Arsenal line-up.

Heck, the hacks are even calling for an England call-up. And I don’t mean the U-15s, either.

Simply put, Jack’s performance was something out of this world for a boy his age, up there with the salivating pre-season performances of Cesc Fabregas and Jose Antonio Reyes in 2004/05, when both joined to tear Manchester United to shreds in the Community Shield.

Of course, Reyes didn’t exactly work out in the long term, but both went on to have good seasons after the fact.

Now it’s Wilshere’s turn to lap up the hype but what the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away – Walcott, of all people, is being targetted by a certain quarters as the man to make way (Myles Palmer is up to it too, but there’s no reason to link to those articles).

Seriously, give me a break, people. Let’s get a couple of things straight – Theo offers entirely different things to what Wilshere offers – the most obvious of which is Theo’s pace, but neither player is the finished product by any stretch.

The latter of which is important to consider – by saying Wilshere should, by his very nature of being Jack Wilshere (some call it ‘axiomaticism’ for the boffins out there), start ahead of Walcott in as many games as possible just assumes he’s a straight out better player than Walcott.

This is simply not true, and contradictory to all the claims that Arsenal ‘need more experience’ – how often do the same fans call for people like Vela et al to replace elder statesmen (whoever they are) in the squad.

Wilshere is an incredible talent, but it seems Theo is seriously being underrated and rubbished for no reason at all. Okay, maybe Wilshere does have the beginnings of ‘more intelligence in his play than Walcott’, but did anybody care when Theo put in an assist for Arshavin’s fourth goal at Anfield? Which of course, was a carbon copy of Moneybags FC’s African mascot’s goal against the same opponents in the same venue the year prior?

Could Wilshere have done that? Theo himself, saints be praised, is not exactly a senior player himself, leaving him with almost as much time as Wilshere has to learn his stuff.

Take a look at Steven Gerrard – a right old mug without any semblance of real ‘footballing intelligence’ in the Paul Scholes or Cesc Fabregas sense – but ask how many Scousers care when he wallops another 40 yarder into the net.

A totally one-dimensional footballer, ol’ Stevey is, but a bloody effective one.

Besides, all those neat chips and arrowed shots that Wilshere has scored have been done by Walcott as well – only in the Champions League and Premier League.

Wilshere has a long, long way to go before he is the finished article. He deserves a heap of praise, but by the same token, so does Walcott.

Briefly in other news, Marouane Chamakh is reportedly in England trying to push through a move to Arsenal – Le Grove makes a good point about preferencing Chamakh over ‘one-dimensional’ Huntelaar – while Wenger has been giving little clues he may be making signings soon, including a possible return of Patrick Vieira.

If Vieira does sign, I will literally lose my mind with excitement, but not for the most obvious of reasons. That’s for another blog post.

Finally, many thanks for the outstanding feedback after the first issue of PORTAL was released to unanimous applause. For those living under a rock for the past few days, you can view the inaugural netcast episode issue right here.

And that’s your lot. I assure you, any offence given was well intended and verbose.

Filed under: Arsenal, Blogging, English Premier League, Portal, Transfer Rumours