Jack Wilshere says he will need some time to get back to his best after a six-week lay-off.
The England midfielder sat out four Arsenal games while he nursed a minor ankle problem but returned at the weekend to start the 3-1 victory over Norwich City.
"I don’t know what the boss will do [against Everton] - if he plays me then I’m fit and ready, and otherwise I’ll be ready to contribute from the bench if needed"
Wilshere admits he lacked sharpness on Saturday but expects to rediscover his sparkling February form before long.
“Obviously it’s good to be back, but it’s going to take time to get back to where I was," said Wilshere. "I know it was only six weeks but you still lose your match sharpness and it takes a few games to come. But it’s always nice to come back to a home game.
“I’m feeling fine. I needed the game on Saturday and am happy the boss gave it to me. The plan was always that I’d play an hour. I don’t know what the boss will do [against Everton] - if he plays me then I’m fit and ready, and otherwise I’ll be ready to contribute from the bench if needed."
Wilshere was outstanding before his spell on the sidelines, driving Arsenal forward from midfield and taking his club form onto the international stage with a man-of-the-match display against Brazil.
"It was frustrating, because I was flying just before I got injured in March," he said. "I felt good, confident, and then picked up another injury. Things then drag a little and you lose your sharpness.
"But this time it wasn’t anything like as long as the one before, so hopefully this time I can get it back more quickly.
"You always need your first game out of the way. I wasn’t great [against Norwich], I know it myself, I’m better than that, but you need to get that first game so your sharpness and understanding come back."
"We obviously don’t want them [Man United] winning the league at Emirates Stadium, so we’ll be up for that"
Arsenal have six games to go in their quest for a Champions League place and two of those are home matches against top-six rivals - Everton and Manchester United.
"We’ve got Everton now which is big, a really important one, and if we win then we’re in a good position," said Wilshere. "But even then we’re definitely not over the line, we’ve got some tough games coming up.
"Fulham away will be tough, and then we’ve got Manchester United - we obviously don’t want them winning the league at Emirates Stadium, so we’ll be up for that.
"But I think we can get maximum points from our six games - we beat United here the season before last, so we know we’re capable of it. If we do drop points, we drop points - we’ll just have to bounce back and go game by game.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
