There was a bit of a debate going on before this match. Hey, this is Arsenal we’re talking about after all. Anyway, the theme this time was whether the Milan match was something of a hiding to nothing for the Gunners. Win it and they earn no congratulation, lose and it’s not worth contemplating. Would the fans care? Would they even turn up?

Perhaps in the hope of sweetening the deal, the club put on a light show before kick-off. It was pretty good. The main floodlights rippled on and off in a limited impersonation of the Beijing Bird’s Nest. The advertising hoardings took on an eerie glow, like they were about to suck you into a corporate vortex. And there, in the stands, were the fans. They had turned out in force.

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The noise throughout was as good as it has been for some time. The Milanese tifosi led the way, creating a hubbub, cutting to complete silence then just when you weren’t expecting it, belting out a “Forza Milan”. The home crowd would respond with a “Come On, Arsenal”, which sounded a bit less intimidating but just as sincere. Later the London club’s fans adapted an Italian chant about sending people to hospital (ospedale) into a song about David Ospina.

If the fans had felt torn, they were not showing it. Meanwhile, the team had a conflict of their own to resolve. Did Arsenal try to impress, win back some of the love lost during that septem horribilis in which the Gunners were tanked twice by Manchester City and lost to Brighton? Or did they do what, as professionals, they should; see the game out with a controlled display of football?

If there was any one player who might be expected to leap on the horns of such a dilemma it would be Jack Wilshere. Recalled to the England squad for the first time since a 45-minute performance against Iceland at Euro 2016 that made its own small contribution to the general malaise, Wilshere is on something of an up. A regular in the Arsenal XI for the first time since the autumn of 2014, he was played at No 10 by Arsène Wenger here. This was a compliment as it meant squeezing both Mesut Özil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of their preferred positions. Surely such a gesture would call for a guns-blazing, gimme-the-ball, taking-on-three-men, ill-timed-challenge kind of display from Jack the Lad? Not a bit of it.

Wilshere played with the restraint you would normally expect from, say, a 26-year-old international who has been playing at the top of the game since he was a teenager. When Laurent Koscielny left the field with a hip injury in the 11th minute, he picked up the captain’s armband. It did not change his performance, however. There was no rushing about, just a steady, metronomic movement up and down the pitch. In actual fact, he was often to be found much deeper than either Özil or Mkhitaryan. He would make himself available to his team-mates and then service them with a pass.

Wilshere did not holler for the ball or chivvy his team-mates to copy his actions. He just got on with his game. In the opening half hour his anticipation twice led him to spaces no one else was occupying in the Milan box and inches away from connecting with the ball. In first-half injury time he hit a dipping 25-yard shot that was the equal of Hakan Calhanoglu’s goal for Milan, except that it was turned wide smartly by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

In the second half, Wilshere was a little steadier. Indeed, he did not lose the ball in a dribble until the 65th minute. But once Granit Xhaka had in effect put the tie to bed, Wilshere kicked on. Showing good stamina, he was as busy in the latter stages of the game as any. He stood up the cross that was eventually turned in by Danny Welbeck for the third goal and might have had a long-range goal at the death but his shot went past a post. It was the right performance from Wilshere at the right moment. And the crowd seemed to enjoy it too.