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Cape Town - Jack Wilshere will be given a chance to stake his claim for a Premier League starting spot, insists Arsene Wenger.
Fit-again Wilshere has impressed in his cup outings for the Gunners this season, but is yet to play a single minute of Premier League football.
The England international again impressed in Arsenal’s 1-0 Europa League win at Red Star Belgrade on Thursday after playing a key role in Olivier Giroud’s superb winner.
Wenger said: "He will get a chance in the Premier League, don't worry about that.
"I think at the moment it's going like that.
"He got a big kick in the first half on his ankle but he managed to get through the 90 minutes and games of that intensity will, of course, help him a lot."
Wenger made a number of changes to his starting XI for the trip to Serbia, yet despite a hostile 50 000-strong home crowd, the Gunners came through unscathed.
"It is not easy to express yourself at 18 years of age. To play in such a heated atmosphere shows how much resilience to stress [the players have] which is an important quality at our level,” added the Frenchman.
"I believe that it was a very difficult game with high intensity in a very heated and supportive atmosphere for the local team and we kept going and trying to win the game and them as well in fairness."
Arsenal fans will be pleased to hear that former defender-turned-pundit, Martin Keown claims to have heard murmurings behind the scenes that staff have said that Wilshere was training better than ever in recent weeks.
The Gunners next face a trip to Goodison Park where they will face an Everton side desperate to turn a disappointing start to their season around.
Kick off is at 14:30.
