Wilshere gearing up for Friday's Final at the Emirates.
Arsenal v Liverpool
The FA Youth Cup sponsored by E.ON
The Final, first leg
8pm, Friday 22 May 2009
Emirates Stadium
Live on Setanta Sports 1
Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere has already figured for the Gunners in the Premier League and Champions League this season, but believes that tonight’s FA Youth Cup Final firstleg and the return game at Anfield next week will be amongst the biggest matches he’s been involved in to date.
The 17-year-old only recently returned from international duty with the England U17 squad who have been in Germany for the European Championship finals, but he is now ready for Cup action and hopefully a first piece of career silverware.
“This will be the biggest Final I will have played in,” admitted the diminutive playmaker.
“It’s been quite a good month for me really. I was with the England U17s at the European Championship at the start of May and now I'm looking forward to The Youth Cup Final.
“You look at some of the players who have won this competition in the past and then what they’ve gone on to achieve and you just think to yourself: ‘I want that’.
Whilst Wilshere himself has often been on duty with Arsene Wenger’s first team squad over the course of this season, the Young Gunners have enjoyed a fine campaign in their FA Premier Academy League as well as the FA Youth Cup run.
And the Stevenage-born player believes that there is more than enough ability and team spirit within their squad to capitalise upon and land this Cup for the first time since 2001.
“There is a lot of talent in this Arsenal team,” he added.
“I think it’s really helped that we’ve been together since we were all nine-years-old and we’ve grown up together through the age groups so the team spirit is really good.
“If the game is tight, we’ve got a couple of potential match winners as Jay Emmanuel-Thomas is always a threat and Sanchez Watt, who scored two in the Semi-Final, will be in the mix as well.
“But I think two of the most important players in the team are Emmanuel Frimpong and Francis Coquelin, two defensive midfielders. They’re tough to play against and they just break up play. They don’t get a lot of credit for it, but it’s great to have them in your team.”
A full interview with Jack will appear in tonight’s programme, which you can buy online by clicking here.