Jack Wilshere believes that not listening to their critics in recent years has helped Arsenal become the team they are today.

Sidelined for a large part of the season after sustaining an ankle injury in our 1-2 home defeat against Manchester United, Jack Wilshere has admired our first team from a far. Interestingly, he believes our success isn’t a new phenomenon but has actually been building for a few seasons.

“Not just over the last season, I think it’s over the last few years [that we have made progress].”

He mentions the pressure from external sources when players started to leave and the team suffered from a number of injuries. The team didn’t let this lack of faith affect them.

“We lost a lot of players from when I started in the first team, a lot of people said Arsenal would never come back but we didn’t listen to them. We kept going, added real quality, world-class players to the squad and the main thing here is the team ethic.”

The midfielder was also keen to hail the positive spirit surrounding the team now, how at one stage we were ‘tough to watch‘ but have ultimately come through the other side and are now a ‘joy to watch‘.

“You can see that we have a great atmosphere around, everyone wants to work for one another and we go into every game knowing we can create chances if we stay strong defensively.

“I remember when I got my first injury and it was the year when Cesc [Fabregas] left. We struggled that year at the start and it was tough to watch.

“It has been totally different this year – they have been playing great football and it has been a joy to watch.”

Wilshere featured for the u21s on Monday night against Reading. Although the team lost 1-0, Wilshere’s return from injury is steady and consistent, with Arsene Wenger clearly not wanting to rush the 23-year-old back to first team football before he reaches full fitness.