Millennium Stadium face off

For the first time in a long time, since 1998 maybe, I was looking forward to watching an England match yesterday afternoon. The reason for this? Well, as I said on Friday, the prospect of our two young midfield tyros going at it in direct competition on the green grass of the Millennium Stadium pitch. In truth, it didn't seem like much of a contest as England passed, moved, mixed it up and played around a Wales team apparently overawed by the occasion and two goals down after fifteen minutes. Jack Wilshere should be very happy with the way he performed, whilst Aaron Ramsey, though obviously downcast at his first game as Wales skipper ending in defeat, should take some positives from the match.

Bearing in mind the quality of the players surrounding Wilshere, and whatever us Arsenal fans like to think of the likes of Lampard, Terry and co, I don't think we can seriously argue that they aren't quality, a defeat for Wales was always the likeliest outcome. Especially when you consider the quality of player that Aaron Ramsey had to work with. Incidentally, excuse me for making this match sound like it was a personal duel between the two Arsenal players, because obviously it wasn't. But it was clearly the hook for me and, I suspect, most of you reading this.

Alongside the respective qualities of the two sides, you also have to consider that Wilshere has flourished in the Arsenal central midfield this season- a situation created by the clumsiness of Ryan Shawcross, and the nothingness of Denilson. Okay, he may not be scoring lots of goals, but I don't think he's in our team to do that presently. And his improvement since the opening day of the season, a performance where most people were looking at him and wondering what all the fuss was about, has been vast. Enough for him to be considered if not our player of the season, then certainly one of them. Clearly our young player of the year anyway. He showed his full range yesterday; his dribbling, ghosting past opponents as if they don't exist, perceptive passing, good decision making, toughness and, for one so young, astonishing maturity- the amount of rough tackling he took without complaint would shame many of the Premier League's leading lights.

By contrast, "Rambo" could do little right for pretty much the entire first half; turning into trouble, passing finding opponents with an accuracy that would have embarrassed him and just generally overwhelmed by the English midfield. It was always going to be a tough ask for someone who has missed over a year of top level football and has only made one start for Arsenal since last February. But Aaron improved as the second half wore on, one pass would surely have resulted in a goal had Steve Morison been awake, whilst he showed very quick feet to fashion an excellent drive from the edge of the box that rose just over the bar. Clearly, and unsurprisingly, dog tired at the end of the match, I think he did very well to last the ninety minutes. And, assuming no injury has been sustained, he will be better for having had that ninety minutes.

As we move towards the domestic season's end, the return of Ramsey, who will surely get better with each week that passes will provide a boost to Arsenal's midfield options. Not least because it provides an alternative to Jack, alongside Cesc and Alex Song, who is neither Denilson nor Diaby. Speaking of Diaby, I was interested to read one defence of Diaby that went along the lines of we should cut Diaby more slack because of the injury he sustained five years ago. Aside from the fact that he is never fit now, and when he is fit, he is invariably useless, I don't see anyone making the same excuse for Eduardo. And I'm willing to bet that Aaron will not be afforded two years, let alone five, of playing as Diaby has. Not that I expect that to be a problem.

At least, I hope not. We're going to need Aaron at full throttle next season, especially with Stuart Pearce apparently intent on using Jack Wilshere for the England under 21s this summer. You would think that Pearce might have the player's interests at heart, especially after what his- we might loosely term- management did to Theo Walcott two summers ago. But, no. The fact that Wilshere has played a full season for his club, the fact that Wilshere is clearly beyond the u-21 stage now, is not enough for the man they used to call "Psycho". I suppose Pearce is only doing what is best for him and he can hardly be knocked for that, but it strikes me that if the governing bodies of our game are serious about protecting players from burning out, they might want to consider how best to do that. Introducing laws preventing national associations from calling up players to the u-21 squads once they have become full internationals would be a good start.

I realise that is not a flawless suggestion, by the way, I'm just throwing it out there for debate; have at it.

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