Jack Wilshere is reaching a crossroads in his career - where does he fit in at Arsenal?

Wilshere came on against Hull last night for his first appearance since November but since suffering that injury against Manchester United he has seen Santi Cazorla excel in the deep passing role and Francis Coquelin nail down the holding position, so much so that even the excellent Aaron Ramsey has been shunted out to the right wing as there's no room for him in the centre.

Given the amount spent on Mesut Ozil, who fills that No. 10 role more often than not, Wilshere has had to abandon any pretensions of a regular attacking role and has had a deep role marked out for him at his club. It’s also a position that England freed up for him prior to his injury.

But Cazorla has been consistently excellent. He doesn’t look a natural for that kind of role – he seems more of an advanced playmaker – but he makes Arsenal tick from deep and plays the ball around excellently. He will never be a Nemanja Matic-style player, but he can nick the ball away from opponents nonetheless. Coquelin, meanwhile, is nigh on untouchable after his unlikely resurgence, unless Arsene Wenger tries to upgrade by spending big on a tough-tackler.

So where does Wilshere fit into all this? To have any chance of earning his place back in the first XI he needs to eradicate his fitness problems and get a run of games, and that could take some time. It’s a similar position to Theo Walcott, who has also returned from a lengthy injury to find his place in the team taken, and his status in the squad questioned.

I think reports of a move to Manchester City for Wilshere might be a bit of a red herring though; it’s probably agent talk. Manchester City aren’t likely to sign a player who hasn’t had much football in the past six months. City fans would ask, ‘hang on, why are we buying someone who has been a crock for the past two seasons?’

Clearly there are benefits for City: Wilshere is homegrown and fills a vital slot in the Premier League squad in that sense. He is also a player of undoubted quality, but we just haven’t seen him deliver on his initial promise yet. There has been lots of hype but we haven’t seen evidence of this supposed genius for some time now.

Wilshere's been England’s next big thing for some time, but suddenly it feels as though three years have gone past the blink of an eye and you wonder where his career is heading. I don’t know that changing clubs will be the right thing for Wilshere this summer, but the fact we are even asking the question demonstrates that something has gone awry.

As for Walcott, it might be the right time for him to leave but he is only being linked with big clubs, like Liverpool, and it doesn’t quite add up. Are they really looking for a player of his ability and quality? His value is high because he is English, not because he is a great player.

As for the team as a whole, when the pressure is off them Arsenal get into that relaxed mode and you saw that against Hull. It happens all too often. Things click when the pressure is off and I think even the most blinkered Arsenal fans won’t allow themselves to get carried away this time. It’s all about how they start next season and where they are come December.

You can’t say off the back of an impressive win away at Hull, and in the context of their fine finish to the season, that they will be title contenders next time around. We’ve been burned too many times by Arsenal to make that mistake again. Good form now doesn’t mean they will learn from their mistakes next season.

They aren’t under any real pressure. It’s like a side that’s just been relegated suddenly finding fluency.

Gary Neville said Arsenal need four more players to strengthen their spine – something Thierry Henry also articulated a few weeks ago – and that sounds about right to me. However, it’s all very well saying they need four, but that needs to be four players who are good enough to improve the team.

They are still vulnerable in the centre of defence, they are still lacking a commanding midfield presence and they are also lacking in attack. So there are plenty of areas for Wenger to work on in the transfer market this summer.