Wilshere has his eureka moment

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
21 Sep	7:45 PM	LC	Tottenham Hotspur (A)	4	1	Win

I remember it vividly with Cesc Fabregas.

I remember it with Ashley Cole.

I can't remember it with Vieira.

And I can't remember it with Bergkamp.

But tonight is a game I'll remember, because it's the game where Jack Wilshere showed just how big a talent he is, and showed what kind of player he's going to be.

For Fabregas it was against Chelsea, sometime in the late Autumn of 2005, when he and Flamini held Lampard, Makelele and co at bay in a quite brilliant rear-guard action. For Cole it was against Valencia in the Champions League, with a performance that instantly consigned Sylvinho to the transfer list. In both those games it became obvious that both those two players would reshape the Arsenal team, and make us better and different from what we were before.

Tonight was Wilshere's night to do the same.

We've seen him play excellent football this season as a kind of supporting role to Cesc. Now tonight we saw him come centre stage, and he stepped up fantastically.

There were three main things I noticed: how deep he plays; how hard he tackles and how well his team-mates have responded to him.

Over the years Fabregas has played very deep for us at times, echoing the "quarterback" playmaker's role of his hero Pep Guardiola in his glorious years at Barcelona. In a way that role never suited Cesc, as Wenger's pushing of him ever further forward seems to confirm. His long range passing is brilliant, but not as brilliant as his ability to move the ball and move players around in tight situations further up the pitch. Wilshere seems slightly different. He played BEHIND Denilson for most of tonight, starting right back in front of the defence to accelerate play up the field.

It's a trick Paddy used to pull when playing with Gilberto, and one Xabi Alonso played when alongside Javier Mascherano. It creates dynamic forward movement straight away, and stops the habit of too much "tappy-tappy" football based on sideways passes in the middle of the park. It accelerates us- and that's a massive bonus.

Wilshere's physical commitment is also astounding. He was getting battered by Tottenham, but kept fighting back. If his style accelerates our play, his commitment was giving us motivation, rhythm and desire. In a team lacking obvious leadership, that anchored us as a unit.

Most impressive though was the response of his colleagues to him. In a team containing experienced internationals like Rosicky, Nasri and Eboue, Wilshere became the leader, became the focal point and dictated the tempo. When Robbie Keane came on and Wilshere's space was reduced he became the supplier to Samir Nasri who had one of his own best games in an Arsenal shirt.

It was an immense performance, one that delivers on what we've hoped for from Wilshere since we first heard about him. Top players change the teams they play in, and bend them to their will. Jack Wilshere did that tonight for Arsenal, and the future with him looks incredibly exciting.

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