Wilshere ‘buzzing’ for Lacazette

Lacazette came off the bench for his first appearance in over six weeks, due to a knee injury, and netted from the spot in the last minute.

And Wilshere, who has had to battle back from his share of injuries during his own career, paid tribute to the French striker.

He told arsenal.com: “I’m buzzing for ‘Laca’. I know how hard he’s worked. He didn’t take his injury well, but nobody does.

“He was down, but he knew what it takes to come back. He’s worked hard and only trained a couple of days, but he was out there and looked like he’s not been away.

“It’s good for the team, good for him and I’m happy for him.”

Wilshere captained the home side, having been ruled out of England’s recent friendlies against Holland and Italy due to an injury picked up while training with the national team.

But the Gunners endured a frustrating first half, before scoring three goals in the last 15 minutes to take the Premier League points.

Wilshere added: “When they sit deep it’s hard to break them down and you have to be at your best on the ball and I don’t think we were in the first half.

“Sometimes it’s like that after an international break, it takes 45 minutes to blow the cobwebs off.

“In the second half we tried to up it and as the game went on, they got tired, we upped it and our attacking play was too much for them.”

Paul Lambert’s Stoke went closest to opening the scoring in the first half when Xherdan Shaqiri hit a post direct from a corner, but Wilshere was pleased to see his side keep their focus in defence and claim a fourth successive victory in all competitions.

The 26-year-old, who played for 76 minutes, added: “We knew they were going to sit in to hit us on the counter. You have to set yourself up so that if you lose the ball, you’re ready to press straight away.

“In the first half, we weren’t really doing that. It was more stretched and we kept losing cheap balls. But in the second half we were much better.”