Arsene Wenger was grilled over Jack Wilshere’s future during his pre-Huddersfield press conference on Tuesday morning.

Although Wenger previously revealed that a decision will be made over Jack’s future in December, the boss still isn’t willing to give anything away about whether the 25-year-old will stay in north London past January. However, Wenger claims he will do what’s best for the midfielder.

“At the moment, I just think about the interest of our next game. I don’t think long term,” said Wenger. “For him, I always considered his interest because for me he’s an Arsenal player and has been since he was a kid.
“He’s a football man and I will always decide what is best for him, that is my first priority no matter what kind of decision I make.
“I have to consider the interests of Jack Wilshere and Arsenal Football Club together.”
He added, “If I think his best interest is to stay here then I will absolutely fight 100 per cent for him to stay here because he’s a guy who is top-quality and is back fit now. For me, when you have a top-quality player, you want him to be at Arsenal Football Club.”

Jack’s potentially poised to make his first Premier League start of the season against Huddersfield seeing as Mesut Ozil could miss out through illness. Wenger insists that the reason he hasn’t picked Jack is purely down to his fitness, as the midfielder is famously injury-prone.

wilshere burnley
BURNLEY, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal celebrates scoiring the first goal with Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Sead Kolasinac of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Burnley and Arsenal at Turf Moor on November 26, 2017 in Burnley, England. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

“For him, I’ve repeated it many times, it’s just about being fit,” Wenger said. “He’s considered like any other player in the squad. He’s at that level now that every opportunity he gets is a good chance for him to commit for a long-term future.”

Although Jack is injury-prone and I understand Wenger wanting to introduce him back to the Premier League gradually, he officially returned in August. If it’s taking this long for him to fight back into the first team after recovering from injury, does he still have a place at the club? Or is he just wasting his own time?

Jack’s played just 48 minutes in the Premiership this season and that’s been over three appearances. He played 23 minutes against Burnley during Arsenal’s 1-0 win on Sunday so perhaps Wenger was seeing how he fared ahead of our midweek game.

We’ll find out soon enough.