by Nia Griffiths
Wilshere scored his first two goals in an England shirt in the 3-2 win. However, he doesn’t want to stop there.
Speaking after the match, the midfielder revealed his desire to emulate some of his predecessors, saying, “I wouldn’t say I’ve answered [my critics] completely. I scored a couple of goals, but I’ve been open in the past that I want to score more goals. I am happy with my goals.” He added, “hopefully I can get a few more. If you look at the top midfielders in the past for England, like Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes, they were always on the scoresheet. That is something I like to do and hopefully I can get a few more in the future.”
Talking about England’s campaign so far, he said although they have some more points to pick up, their competition so far has proven their intent and shown how seriously they’re taking the tournament.
“It is nice to get my first few goals for England but the main thing was continuing our unbeaten run,” he said. “We have put a big marker down in the group to say we are serious about this. We are nearly there now. We have got a few more points to get but we feel we are in a really strong position.”
“It has been a [fine campaign],” Wilshere continued. “We wanted to respond after a disappointing World Cup. We wanted to become harder to beat, more ruthless and become a harder team to play against, and I think we’ve done that.
“I think it’s the first time [England have finished a season unbeaten] in 29 years and that just shows the work we put in on the training pitch, the togetherness we’ve got here and hopefully we can continue that.”
As an Arsenal fan, seeing Wilshere so full of drive is really inspiring and hopefully he takes this winning mentality – as well as goal scoring – into next season.
Although the 23-year-old has been unlucky in terms of injuries, hopefully those days are behind him so he can move forward and become the midfielder we always knew he was destined to be.
