Jack Wilshere reveals Arsenal’s downfalls in derby day defeat

On Saturday at Wembley, Tottenham Hotspur walked away from their Premier League showdown against Arsenal with a 1-0 victory thanks to a towering header from Harry Kane, and Jack Wilshere – who endeavoured valiantly in the centre of the park for the Gunners on the day – has revealed his squad’s damning downfalls which lead Spurs to claim 3 points and the bragging rights.

Arsenal, who occupy 6th in the standings with 45 points after the derby day defeat, are now 7 points behind the 4th placed Lilywhites, and the deficit between Arsene Wenger’s men and Champions League football could be widened on Monday evening, if Chelsea can beat West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge.

Wilshere has returned to Arsenal’s match day XI resoundingly since recovering from his debilitating injury set-backs, but was suffocated by Tottenham’s Moussa Dembele at times throughout proceedings, meaning that the England playmaker couldn’t exploit the cracks in the opposition’s defensive ranks as frequently as what’s usually expected.

As per a report published by Football London, Wilshere, 26, openly admitted where he and his teammates failed to capitalise against Mauricio Pochettino’s assertive collective.

“We missed an opportunity in the first half to take the lead. The game was there in the first half, they were a bit cagey and we defended well.

We got down on the counter-attack a few times in the first half and we looked like we could have really hurt them, but then we had our final ball where we rushed it and the chance was gone.”

The north-London derby is fuelled on grit, tenacity and determination, and it’s evident to gauge that Arsenal simply couldn’t cope with the pressures Spurs exerted once the first ball was played from kick-off .

“[Tottenham] started sharper than us I suppose. It’s something we spoke about as well, so I don’t really know why that happened. But we have to deal with it now. We’ve lost the game and we have to move on and focus on the next game and try to win the next game.” He added.

[Bouncing back is] the most important thing. In the past, this team has always shown good character and we need to put a run together now and give ourselves a decent chance of challenging.”