Jack Wilshere made his fourth appearance of the season for Arsenal against Red Star Belgrade on Thursday evening.

Wilshere has now featured in three out of three of Arsenal’s Europa League clashes and he’s yet to disappoint.

From the outset, the 25-year-old was one of the Gunners’ only bright sparks and his passes forward were a revelation. Unfortunately for him, players getting onto the end of them weren’t able to finish. Plus, the midfielder sometimes gets a bit excited and let’s his feet run away from him a bit.

wilshere heat map red star

Wilshere completed 30/39 passes (77%), which admittedly could be better. However, one look at his heatmap tells you how instrumental he was to the game. While he did misplace the odd pass, he was consistently driving play forward, running from box to box and looking at ways of threading through a forward. And taking five corners.

Sure enough, the England international linked up beautifully with Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud to score the only goal of the evening. It was similar to the way Wilshere and Giroud linked up in 2013 against Norwich.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/921092638618587137

It’s clear that the pair have a great understanding of each other on the pitch and it’s a shame we’ve not seen more of it.

Wilshere also completed five out of the seven dribbles he attempted, and won an aerial duel and a tackle.

Another excellent performance despite the mediocre match. Hopefully he gets to travel to Everton at the weekend for our Premier League clash at Goodison Park.