Both of these two Arsenal stars have played their part in getting the Gunners back on track after a disappointing start to the season, in terms of the Premier League at least as we lost to Liverpool at home before drawing away to Leicester City.
They may be operating at different ends of the pitch but the England forward Theo Walcott and the Germany defender Shkodran Mustafi have been arguably just as important to the Gunners being able to win all six EPL games since that slow start, so both are entitled to their opinion about Arsenal and the current season.
Just like their different roles in the team, Mustafi and Walcott have very different approaches to our title challenge, or at least how it should be looked at. The striker is reported by Sky Sports talking up our chances of being able to win the Premier League this time because of the ability to grind out results shown in the last two wins over Burnley and Swansea.
He said, “The Burnley game, they were very well organised and we found it very difficult.
“But we all stuck in, showed patience and, in time we got the win, which was really important.
“Again against Swansea, we had to be diligent, be patient at times, but we still got the win even if it would have been nice to take the ball home on a personal note.
“The Burnley match was a game where we had to grind it out. This game, when we went down to 10 men, we tend to lose, to be honest. There’s some things that are slowly getting better.”
Arsenal’s next two Premier League matches are against Middlesbrough and Sunderland but Walcott is not getting carried away.
“I don’t look at the table. I genuinely don’t.
“I feel all we can do is control ourselves and not really hope that other teams get results on our behalf. If we play well we win games and that’s all we can do.
“We’ve been in this situation [contending at the top of the table] before. There’s always some sort of blip but hopefully we’re not going to have that this year.
“With the squad we have, if we keep players fit, with players coming back, then who knows?
“You can’t really call the Premier League this year. It’s so unpredictable.”
I know that Theo is not saying that Arsenal are going to win it but he is talking up our chances, whereas the centre back instantly shut down any talk of the title at this early stage of the season when he was asked about it this weekend, as shown in an Arsenal.com report.
Mustafi said, “I think there’s no point in thinking to far ahead. We just need to think day after day and game after game. We’re going to have a tough game on Wednesday as well, so we have to be prepared for that game. Sometimes when you think too far in the future, you forget about the present and then you lose points. That’s what we don’t want to do.”
Personally I think the German has thr right attitude and the players should not even be thinking so far ahead but just getting on with one game at a time. Do you agree?
Bob.
Mustafi I can understand. He’s a World Cup winner. Somehow I am getting nervous when Walcott speaks about title. What I like though is the fact that he’s hungry for success. I’ll take this as a positive.
Walcott still needs to prove in the big games, I think his qualities will be judge from there. Even a player like Griezman fails to perform on big occassion. Leicester managed to win EPL because they manage to earn point against the big boys last season.
Honestly, do you watch most of Arsenal’s matches? Look at out last matches against “big teams”, you will see Walcott showing up with goals and assists whenever he plays.
His issue was always going invisible for most of a match or being inconsistent from one match to another. Now you see him defending, making tackles, holding the ball better, and shouting that he wants the ball whenever he gets in a decent position. If he keeps that up he’ll make a huge difference to our season.
we shouldn’t be scared about talking about title-win whenever we want what we need do is work on the team to near perfection.
presently we still need work on our defending from the left flank ;Gibbs/monreal
Mustafi need work on aerial balls into the box
it’s good Ozil is now scoring, but he isn’t at his creative best yet.
Iwobi needs to start banging in goals
Alexis needs to be more a striker than a SS/CAM
Which Arsenal are you following? And which walcott are you talking about??? What do you mean by big game anyway??? He’s one of the few big game players we have around.
Go to sleep mate.
I think if you have been an Arsenal fan for the last 10+ years you will be wise enough not to dream about the title until its late April or May or once we have a 10 point lead in the table.
If you have been around Arsenal as long as Theo (and Wenger), you should not speak about the title either.
In fact, for me, no club has a reasonable expectation to win the PL ATM. The top 6/7 teams in the table theoretically can still all win it. No team has stepped forward and shown they are clear favorites. City/Man U and Chelsea all got off to a good start but have faded since, Spurs have CL football to deal with, Liverpool have to show consistency and we have a history to go missing when it counts.
Deep down inside I am dying to believe, but that’s my heart, my brain knows to not get carried away.
Next big test, November.
It’s the old cliche innit. If one player were to talk prematurely about title winning my money would be on Theo. But as long as they stick to the cliche well then they will not get bitten. Lei and Ranieri were bending over backwards to keep title talk from of their lips, didn’t want to jinx it, only admitted they were in the running when they had it almost sewn up. It’s way to early here to say anything of the sort. Refereeing Injuries bad tactics pressure there is so much that can go wrong.