• Champions League

Wenger: Wilshere's becoming our Cesc

Arsene Wenger says Jack Wilshere is taking on the same qualities as Cesc Fabregas after the England midfielder inspired Arsenal to a 2-0 win over Montpellier in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Wilshere made a well-timed break into the penalty area early in the second half to make a crucial breakthrough for Arsenal, latching onto Olivier Giroud's header to poke past the Montpellier goalkeeper.

It was a goal that eventually led to a victory that sweeps Arsenal into the knockout stages of the Champions League, with Lukas Podolski making things safe later in the game - rattling home a piledriver of a volley.

Wenger was asked of Wilshere's likeness to Fabregas, who used to pull the strings for the Gunners, and he responded on Sky Sports: "Yes. He is getting stronger physically and tonight he got in the box.

"He is a complete midfielder - he can defend well and attack well. This sort of situation will give him confidence."

Wenger made no bold predictions, though, about Arsenal winning their maiden Champions League trophy, preferring to take each tie as it comes in the last-16.

"We don't worry too much about that," the Frenchman said. "When you are in this competition you just want to get into the next round. Now we go into a cup competition."

Wilshere sounded a note of caution to Gunners fans, preferring to focus on the task of topping the group before they even think about getting to the quarter-finals.

"We started off sloppy. But we've still got one game left. We need to finish top," the youngster said.

"The first half was hard - we were sloppy, we gave the ball away and weren't ourselves so needed to come and get an early goal.

"We have to step it up. Tonight wasn't good enough, especially in the first half. We've got to play the best teams to win it so it doesn't matter who we get."

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