‘It was a human reaction from Wilshere’

Jack Wilshere has had to learn to live with being under intense scrutiny ever since his breakthrough season in 2010/11.

That has continued after he was sent off in Monday night’s under-23 match against Manchester City at Emirates Stadium.

Arsene Wenger has sympathy for the midfielder, who reacted to a bad tackle, and says he hopes he can build on his vast potential.

“At my stage and with my experience in football, I can understand a lot - especially what happened to him,” the Arsenal manager said.

“Ideally he wouldn’t have responded at all but when you have gone through what he has gone through, with bad tackles, it was a human reaction.

“At the moment he is working very hard to come back after his fracture so another setback would be terrible and it was a bad tackle.

“You know how much I love Jack and his talent,” he added. “I started him at the age of 17 but today in the football world you need to be a consistent presence.

“What is at stake for Jack is not his quality, his talent or his determination, it is whether he is a consistent presence at the top. I hope he can manage to do that and after nobody questions his quality.”