The 20-year-old is set to make his first appearance – on the bench – against Aston Villa tomorrow since getting injured on the opening day of the season.
His return prompted Arsenal boss Wenger to insist: “Alex’s future will be in central midfield – or even deeper. He has good quality to distribute and penetrate individually and has similar qualities to Steven Gerrard.”
“He will be in Roy Hodgson’s plans because he can play central and wide and England don’t have too many like that.”
Wenger revealed that his £12million youngster had come back well from his injury.
“He has commonsense and took it well,” said Wenger.
“It took him longer than expected but he has worked hard and at least he escaped surgery, which is important at his age,” he added.
Wenger, a well chronicled critic of the January transfer window, claimed again that the need will have to be extreme to force him to splash the cash on any new players this month.
He added: “If something special comes up and a player is available you would do it, but overall this transfer window should not exist.
“It is always a rush hour and every press conference is about who you might buy and not the next game.
“To find players to strengthen a club like ours at this time is nearly impossible. It is not about the money just the potential.”
Written by Steve Milne
