When asked about Jack Wilshere’s qualities on 18 February 2011, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger came up with a perfectly succinct response: “He has a Spanish technique certainly, yes. He has an English heart because he’s an English boy.”
At his best, that was Wilshere in a nutshell, a lovely mix of two archetypes. Enough technical ability to mix it with the absolute elite of the Champions League; yet, alongside it, the tenacity, drive and snap in the challenge that you might expect of a box-to-box midfielder of a bygone era.
It was, it seemed, the perfect combination. And at the point that those words came from Wenger’s mouth, Wilshere looked for all the world as if he would develop into the finest English midfielder of his generation.
Just two days prior to that statement from Wenger, Wilshere had put in his finest Arsenal performance to date. It was his breakout display, bossing a Champions League last-16 game against a Barcelona midfield containing Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets.
At the time, Arsenal were on a high. They’d had an up-and-down start to the season, finishing second in their Champions League group behind reigning UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk and losing four league games before Christmas.
But by mid-February, they were flying again. They had lost just once since mid-December, and that was an irrelevance – a League Cup semi-final first-leg defeat that they overturned in the second game.
So, they had qualified for one final, were set to face Leyton Orient for a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals and were second in the league, just a point behind Manchester United.
The world looked rosy. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were back in the mix, still with a chance of silverware on all four fronts.
The obstacle in front of them in Europe was a significant one, however: Barcelona. Not just any Barcelona, the Barcelona. Pep Guardiola’s team were at the very peak of their irresitible powers, not so much crushing all before them as leaving all before them behind them, waltzing around teams and baffling them with their fulll-control football.
Barca were also a stone in Arsenal’s shoe, having beaten them in the 2006 Champions League final, which Wenger later referred to as the biggest regret of his career, and 6-3 on aggregate in the quarter-finals in 2010.
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READ: Seven of the best Arsene Wenger stories: Toure, Grenfell, Anelka & more
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Arsenal would have to play above themselves to stand a…
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