Arsene Wenger sings Jack Wilshere's praises for Liverpool performance but team-mates do him no help

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Arsene Wenger was quick to take the chance to talk up Jack Wilshere’s contribution after Arsenal escaped with a point against Liverpool on Friday night. His team’s remarkable five-minute three-goal blitz had turned around a game that was threatening to get away from them and Wenger’s relief was obvious.

“He was one of the players who played with quality even in the first half,” Wenger said of Wilshere. “He had that determination, and you know that Jack was never frozen. What he did in the second half was to drag the rest of the team with him.”

This was Wilshere’s third start in a row, the first time he has done this for Arsenal for more than three years. Wenger knows this, of course, and pointed out how much progress Wilshere has made of late. “He is better now than he was in the last two or three years, I think,” he said. “We are positive, he is in very good shape.”

Certainly there were moments when Wilshere picked up the ball and moved it forward, keeping Arsenal on the front foot, when his value to the team was obvious. Too often with no Aaron Ramsey in the team there is no link from the midfield to the front line. For as long as Ramsey is out with a hamstring injury, Wilshere is the only man who can provide that.

And yet there is no avoiding the fact that this was a game that revealed that against opposition as good as Liverpool, Arsenal cannot afford to play Wilshere and Granit Xhaka together as a two in front of the defence. The midfield pair were exposed for much of this game, not given any help by their front four but unable to do anything to stem the waves of Liverpool attacks.

Of course Wilshere has never been a defensive midfielder, and his tackling has often been speculative at best. But Xhaka, it is increasingly clear, is a player who is only useful when Arsenal have the ball and there is no pressure to stop him from picking his passes or letting off shots. Playing the two together, against a team who presses them, is asking for trouble.

So it proved on Friday night. Up against a midfield three, whenever Wilshere darted out, Liverpool passed around him. For Liverpool’s first, Philippe Coutinho and James Milner left Wilshere on the floor before setting off Mohamed Salah, who set up Coutinho’s header. Liverpool’s second started with Salah, deep inside his own half, racing far away from a stranded Wilshere. Seconds later Salah’s shot deflected off Shkodran Mustafi and in.

For much of the evening it was very difficult going for Wilshere. He ran had but he still lost more 50-50s than he won, especially against opponents as canny as Firmino, Coutinho and Sadio Mane. There are times when his natural enthusiasm leaves him over-exposed. At one point he overran the ball and had to over-reach with his tackle and brought down Ragnar Klavan.

But what does this tell us? It is not Wilshere’s fault that he is being relied to do all of the defending his midfield colleagues do not want to do. It cannot be easy playing alongside Xhaka in a two in games like this, given how little he contributed to the midfield battle. Ideally he would have played alongside a more diligent midfielder – Mohamed Elneny or even Francis Coquelin – to protect the defence and disrupt Liverpool’s flow.

If Wilshere was freed from defensive responsibilities, or even if he was playing with colleagues who wanted to help him, he could focus more on his own strengths. But in a team like this, against opposition this good, his desire to put out too many fires at the same time does nobody any good.