Arsenal's loss is definitely West Ham's gain - it's great to have Jack Wilshere at the club, writes Mark Noble

Mark Noble24 August 2018

If I was the Arsenal manager, Jack Wilshere would be in my starting line-up for sure.

He’s had his injuries, but he is a fantastic player and we are glad to have him here. It will be strange for Jack going back to his old club this weekend. In my view, he needed to leave Arsenal — and he would probably say so himself: he was in a no-win situation there.

He had been there for a long time and every time I watched Arsenal play, the talk after would always be about Jack. It’s probably because he is English, but other players would give the ball away three or four times and the commentary would still be about Jack. Every time he made a bad pass, everyone said he was not good enough any more. Oh, come on!

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I hope we can see the best of him here at West Ham. You forget sometimes that he is only 26. I am not cutting his career short, but he has probably got seven good years left. If he can play at West Ham for seven years, then he will have a great time here. He is a great lad, one of your own, and it is nice to have him here. He’s an English boy who has been brought up the English way. He will be important for us at the Emirates tomorrow.

It was disappointing for us last weekend against Bournemouth. Going a goal up at home and then conceding was poor. We have to learn quickly from that, put it behind us and make sure we pick up some points before the international break.

As I keep saying, results are everything in this game. The longer we don’t get results, the less patience the fans will have. That is a fact. The aim now is to pick up some points from our next two League games, against Arsenal and Wolves, and get a positive result in the Carabao Cup in between. It is still early in the season. Go to Arsenal and get a result, win a couple of games and things will be completely different.

Three players — Michail Antonio, Ryan Fredericks and Declan Rice — were not included in the squad for the Bournemouth game after they played against Liverpool.

In Pictures | West Ham vs Bournemouth | 18/08/2018

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The manager has got a vast number of players, and he is going to have to see them at some point. That does keep you on your toes. When you train every day with players who play in your position, it gives you that extra incentive to put your foot on the gas and try to make sure he does not take your place. But the Premier League is so demanding now, and everyone is going to need to play a part. As the manager said in his press conference, I’ve had a back problem this week and we will continue to assess it. It’s something I played with last season.

Arsenal have had a tough start against Manchester City and Chelsea. There were some encouraging signs for them against Chelsea but we believe we can go there tomorrow and get a result.

My decision to give mark the ball for our penalty was spot-on

On the spot: Arnautovic put West Ham ahead in the defeat to Bournemouth
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It was my decision to give Marko Arnautovic the ball for our penalty against Bournemouth last weekend.

I think I know Marko as well as anybody in football now and I know that he plays off confidence.

It is alright scoring in pre-season, but scoring in the Premier League and getting off the mark as a striker, even in a game we lost, is important.

I don’t just say it: I want the best for the club; I want Marko to score goals this year; I need him to score goals this year because we are really going to need him this season.

Before giving him the ball, I thought, ‘Early in the season, first game at home, in front of our fans, it will be good for him to score’, so that is why I did it.

Of course, I will stand up for penalty duties going forward. This one was an off-the-cuff decision. I don’t want any plaudits because, as I said, it is important for strikers to get off the mark.

I went to celebrate with Marko when he scored but soon after he pushed me off.

I had forgotten about that until now — and I am going to have to pull him up on that!

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