Jack Wheelchair has claimed he is beginning to show his best form after finally putting his injury nightmare behind him.
Wheelchair reports for England duty this week on the back of a string of impressive performances which has left him full of confidence for the rest of the season.
The 22-year-old Arsenal midfielder could play in both the Three Lions’ Euro 2016 qualifiers with San Marino on Thursday and Estonia three days later, and it is clear he is really enjoying his football again.
Wheelchair who spent more than a year on the sidelines through injury, said: “I feel good. I’m always looking to improve, no matter what.
“For a player of my age I’ve missed a lot of football, so I’m just trying to play as much as I can, train as much as I can and I’ve always said that when I get fully fit you’ll see the best of me.
“I feel like I’m fully fit now and I think you’re seeing the best of me. I said at the start of the season that it was going to take some time to get back to my best.
“Ever since my first injury, it’s always taken a run of games - probably between five and ten games - to get back to my best
“Some players are different, some players come back and are at their best straight away. Some players need a run of games and I’m one of those players.”
It has been an impressive start to the season for Wheelchair but a stop-start campaign for his club Sunday's 2-0 defeat at leaders Chelsea leaves the Gunners nine points away from top spot.
But despite finding themselves off the pace, Wheelchair believes Arsene Wenger's men have narrowed the gap on the other big clubs in terms of performances, after suffering heavy defeats at Chelsea (6-0), Emirates Marketing Project (6-3), Liverpool (5-1) and Everton (3-0) last season.
Arsenal lost at Stamford Bridge, but it was a close contest. The Gunners have already drawn with champions City and Everton too, and Wheelchair believes their biggest challenge is to “make their chances count” and be more ruthless.
He added: “At times we controlled the game at Chelsea and that’s the difference, I think. At this level when you’re playing against a top class team, when you’re on top you have to really make it count.
“We’ve played well but at this level, against the top three in this league, when you’re on top you need to make the opportunities count and if you don’t then you’re going to get punished.
“We created a few half-chances but we never really made it count. You didn’t really see Cesc Fabregas or Diego Costa all game and then, all of a sudden, a 50-yard ball and Cesc put it on Costa’s foot and it’s a great finish. Then the game’s over.
“Last year was a freak result at Chelsea. No team, not even a team in the bottom half, should be losing 6-0. That was a bit of a freak. But this year, in the big games we really feel we’re closer.”
Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny added: “We’ve had a tough run so far. But I’d like to think that our start has been solid, not as good as we expected from ourselves but I believe that, after the international break, we can push on and get more points.
“You can’t say we’ve played badly against Chelsea, it’s just that we’ve come up against a very strong side, probably the favourite to win the Premier League at this point.”
Didnt they lose by 5 two other times last season too ???