Do Pictures of Smoking, Partying Wilshere Rub Arsenal Fans the Wrong Way?

Jack Wilshere should not be in the news.

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Not today while he is still recovering from a serious ankle injury suffered in November, and not ahead of Saturday's north London derby, when Arsenal's focus should be on archrivals Tottenham Hotspur and nothing else.

But the Gunners midfielder is nevertheless in the headlines for holding a shisha pipe in a picture taken last week at a London nightclub that has since—according to well near every English outlet, including the Mirror—surfaced on Twitter.

Now, an image of a partying, night life-loving 23-year-old is, in itself, anything but newsworthy. And no doubt Wilshere doesn't see it as such. He's merely acting his age and enjoying himself, and the morality police who would have him pilloried in the press would do well to defend their glass houses.

He is not endangering himself or anyone else, and he is not putting his career as a professional footballer at risk.

But that's not the issue here. Not in this instance.

What's troubling about this latest image (he was also pictured smoking in October 2013 and last July, as per the Daily Mail) is that—at least for Arsenal fans—he risks being perceived as someone who doesn't take his status as seriously as the club's supporters would have him or even as his manager would prefer.

"I disagree completely with that behaviour," remarked Arsene Wenger upon seeing the first image 16 months ago, according to the Guardian. "There are two things: first of all when you are a football player, you are an example, and as well you don't do what damages your health."

He added: "The fact is that you can damage your health at home. You can smoke at home, and you can drink at home, and nobody sees it. But when you go out socially, you also damage your reputation as an example."

You also send the message that you're not as concerned with your comeback as you might be, and that even if you are, the perception suggests otherwise.

It's all about optics, and here's guessing most Arsenal fans would have preferred to have neither seen nor read anything about Wilshere other than a training update.

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They take the club, and their passion for it, seriously, and they expect the players to do the same—to at least heed the manager's instructions and keep away from the cameras, especially when they haven't played in nearly three months.

Alexis Sanchez's hamstring injury, as reported by The Independent, is actually news. Wilshere's smoking is not.

But it rubs Arsenal supporters the wrong way. It shows him savouring the high life when all he should be worrying about—and all they're worrying about—is that ankle.