Walcott Arsenal’s secret weapon on path to glory?

It was strange to see how little use the Arsenal manager made of the England international Theo Walcott last season. The flying front man was supposedly fit again after his long spell on the sidelines with a cruciate ligament injury some time around the turn of the year.

Arsene Wenger did play him a couple of times back then and Walcott answered with good performances and goals, which made it seem all the stranger that he sat out most of the rest of the season on the bench. But judging by the way the striker finished off the campaign, scoring a brilliant hat-trick in the final league game before starting in the FA cup final and scoring the opener, it is hard to criticise the Frenchman’s decision.

It was clear that Walcott was desperate to play more and perhaps this was part of the manager’s plan, or perhaps he was treating him with kid gloves on the advice of the new fitness and medical experts at the club. Whatever the case, we now have a fully fit and in form striker ready to go at the start of next season and I think he could be the difference for us.

With Ozil supposedly set to hold down the number 10 role, his vision and technical skill combined with Walcott’s movement and pace could form the duo into a devastating weapon. I cannot wait to see those two playing together regularly.

Plus, Walcott proved that he can compete with Giroud for the centre forward role and that gives Wenger great options, as well as cover and competition up front. So has Le Prof played this one perfectly? And is Walcott set to be our secret weapon on the road to success?

Tags Giroud Ozil Wenger

39 Comments

    1. Good one, mate

      But guess Wenger needs to make sure that he plays him more often – players cannot blossom without being given a fair enough chance…Even of the bench, rather come in at 55min then 75min.

    1. Theo should be in arsenals best starting eleven, he should play on the right wing. That’s the role he plays best at. He’s not going to make it as a striker. He is a winger.what’s wrong with being a winger????

  1. Wenger played walcott’s return from injury BRILLIANTLY. He knew what was better for him long term and we are seeing how sharp and strong walcott looks.
    Look at falcao, he rushed back from his injury and since he was so short sighted, it has costed him dearly and we see just how poor he looks.

    Wenger and the physio’s deserve massive credit for this and I hope he’s able to stay healthy all season

    1. Maybe we should reserve judgement until Theo has more than 2 decent games under his belt since coming back ay? All these Falcao cheap shots are getting pretty old, I pray karma isn’t paying too much attention to the nonsense that’s been written about him this past year

      It was Falcao’s first season in England, off the back of ACL surgery, playing in a United team that turned arguably the previous European player of the year Di Maria into someone who made Ashley Young look good. I think Falcao is going to have plenty to say this season, and I for one will be steering clear of the humble pie.

      1. If you had to wager who you think is going to have more impact next season between Theo and Falcao who would your money be on??

        1. Falcao. I have far greater belief in Falcao as a ST than Theo. Falcao merely has to prove his fitness, whilst Theo has to prove his quality AND fitness.

          1. It wasn’t however, Falcaos first season playing internationally for Columbia and he ate shit out there too. I would argue that he was worse. I am not arguing with your point, I actually agree with you about not bashing other players for being out of form. I just think it’s a little more than out of form for Falcao. Hopefully his best days are behind him and he doesn’t wake up and terrorize the league with Chelski

          2. Since he is going to play for chelsea next season…rather hope that he become another torres or better yet schevchenko for them…..

      2. Would you even contemplate he is in decline? Take out the penalties and he has scored less league goals than OG in the last 5 seasons. Only 1 less granted – but me thinks the mythology kicking the facts in to touch again.

        1. There’s the misleading stats coming into play again. This penalty vs no penalty argument is boring, if Giroud was a ruthless ST he’d take them. A good portion of the time it’s the ST being wrongfully denied a goalscoring opportunity so I don’t care for the penalty story over a 5 year period.

          On top of that comparing total goals says nothing about them as players, Giroud scores the vast majority of his vs poorer opposition whilst Falcao is famed as the deadliest ST because he scores against everyone and is a decisive player in a match. But let’s just reduce them to a goal tally with certain parameters so Giroud can get a win vs him.

          1. I get the point about the penalty argument may be boring – but I’ll continue it for several reasons. It is even more boring hearing the incessant droning on here about the super-human big name centre forwards – just today someone saying we need a guaranteed 25 league goal centre forward like Benzema or Lewandoski. I won’t insult your intelligence beyond saying neither has never acheived it once and KB has never even been close. Many bang on about wanting the “magical, something out of nothing centre forward” – well for my money a penalty says nothing about that. It is a team reward, bought dubiously or cheaply more often than for denial of a genuine goal-scoring opportunity. I mean for Christ’s sake Ibra has 30 of them in the last 5 seasons! Even OG on his worst days would get 25 of those.

            Anyway, lets include the penalties to appease you – Falcao has 83 (incl 16 pens) over the last 5 seasons. Giroud has 74. So not even 2 extra goals a year. And the better opposition thing is something you just made up – apart from playing Barca, Real and PSG twice a year in the league he gets quite an easy ride.

            1. I made nothing up, you just took what I said and ran in a diffetent direction. Falcao is famed for being a world class ST, he’s proven his ability time and again vs the best in Europe and in the crunch biggest games his club sides have played. Giroud hasn’t come close, and sitting here trying to equate them both based on a mundane statistical outlook such as a tally of goals means diddly. Giroud isn’t in the same league as Falcao, and if Falcao proves his fitness he’ll blow every ST bar maybe Aguero out the water in the Prem.

        1. I’m negative for saying Falcao has less to prove as a ST than Walcott? Lol just read that out loud you buffoon. Only an Arsenal forum can someone disagree with such a thing.

  2. I really hope he does well. If we don’t buy a striker this summer, its probably because of him.
    OT: I wonder why JM sold Kevin De bruyne last summer? Anyways I’m glad he did. I loved watching him play for wolfsburg. Every brilliant thing he did was like a grant F.U. to JM.

    1. I loved watching de bruyne too he is a wonderful player. And Jose is a stupid a*s 19th century manager who plays negative boring football and has no idea what a wonderful attacking player looks like.
      His keeping of willian and his 2 goals confirm this

      1. Guys. He is doing the right thing as they do win the epl and not us. Williams is a powerhous. Similar to Ramsey.

  3. Am I the only one who suspects that giroud will flop,he went for 8games without scoring at the end of season,Wenger did not start Him at fa final later booyed by france fans. We will not be waiting giroud to score,we want an exciting striker not a scare scrow of a striker!

    1. I’m with you Giroud is just not good enough to lead a title challenge,he’s a streak goalscorer who’ll go 6games scoring 5goals then the next 5games score zero goals what we need is a consistent goalscorer

    2. We have to accept this as i dont see any changes in the future in the striker role. Giroud must be a lucky men for being born a french guy.

      1. Stats suggest that Giroud deserves his spot and is not favored…like an old article on here said….few teams have won the leauge with a 30 plus goal scorer….the whole team must contribute

  4. Walcott no doubt wants to play as an out and out striker, which I reckon has been a major factor in his contract negotiations. In order to keep him at the club, I think Wenger will have to give him a fair run in that position, meaning we may not buy a proven goalscorer in this window (still, I hope we do).

    If that’s the case, I would have the backroom staff compile all footage of Thierry Henry and hand it over to Walcott – “Here you go son, this is how you transition from a decent winger to a world class striker whilst playing for Arsenal”.

    Henry 2.0 – We can all but dream

    1. AFC just recently employed two good fitness coaches to help solve the injury headache that’s been going on for a while in the club – arsenal is doing every thing to make sure the players stay fit for the title charge next season -mate, I can see the epl title coming to the red part of London next season…COYG!!!

      1. Absolutely mate, wise move by the club. I reckon it’ll be a tight season for sure but we’re definitely coming from a good place with the 2 FA cup wins. Here’s to hoping the majority of the lads will stay fit, with a couple of quality additions to add a little more depth.

  5. Walcott’s been at Arsenal for 10 years…..I’d say he’s about the least secretive thing we have going for us

    1. people say brazil is a country on the verge of greatness…and has been for 200 years….sadly i think Walcott is our very own Brazil!!! I guess the big question is if wenger sees the CF role sown up between a giraffe and a whippet what kind of strike options might be brought i… a wider option with goal scoring options? is there an aguero type out there? pedro? buying drexler and pushing him further forward….its worrying because our current strike force might frighten the villa`s and everton`s of this world but aint going to worry the top boys

  6. And injury is the Public reason which will prevent Walcott from getting into that playing field..

  7. I think Walcott’s assets fit the CF role for AFC perfectly. Carzorla and Ozil’s long pass ability is something we haven’t seen since Manu Petit and Walcott’s pace and ability to get behind a defence makes him perfectly suited to our style of play

  8. Take away the pride from a men and he becomes a nothing. Falcao did not want manure and manure did not want him, but for the sake of them buying, they got him in the end. Same goes for Di Maria.

    Walcott did not develope his game at all. You can say that Wenger was playing smart guy by playing him out of poz on the wings so he could learn one trick or two, but this failed badly. Walcott has speed, but his brain is slow. Much of his game and his success is linket to others in the team. How much they can assist him, how much they can do the dirty job, se he can score in the end. Neverless, he is still very dangerous but not made for every game.

    Other teams know how to beat us. Park the buss like Chelsea and goodbye Arsenal.

    1. I disagree with you. Theo is not the most intelligent player on the pitch, and cannot spot killer pass like Ozil, his decision making on the ball need to improve – it is hard to make good decision when you are running at full speed. But he is one of the best off the ball runner that we have – opponents does not want to play high defensive line or press our midfielder higher on the pitch due to the threat he pose – you may argue that the long distance scorcher by Sanchez in the FA final is due to their CBs slow in closing him down, wearying of the Walcott threat.
      At the end of the day, we have a two very good and with different style strikers but admittedly kind of one dimensional. So it is up to the manager to use them well depending on tactics and opponents. Ideally we should get a world class one who can do both – and I believe the manager is waiting for player of such calibre to be available.

      1. There is none. It would be smart to get our self a very talented Winger and turn him into a striker rather then buying an overrated Higuain for 45m who is not even woth half of that money. Walcott is fantastic on a open game but all the other teams do park the buss against us, and by doing so Walcotts football attributes do become useless. Comparing him to Henry is sheer idiocy.

        Striker. Giroud>Walcott
        Wing. Welbeck>Ramsey>Walcott.

        But like you said, lets hope that Wenger finds the right solution.

  9. “IF” Walcott stays fit
    he will score at least
    25 goals this season
    and make at least 15 assists.

  10. He is too injury prone and no longer young. He is NOT and NEVER the solution for our striker.

    Rely on him and Giroud means we will be fourth place contender, NOT trophy contender.

    Time to wake up from IF he stays healthy and fit DREAM. He is just an average player.

  11. Theo needs a few chances a playing central in the games against opponents who we give us space. Giroud is always effective coming from the bench just like Dzeko.

    I would love us to play 3-5-2 in the early cup games…front line of Sanchez + Walcot, Ox and Welbeck on the flanks, Ozil distributing.

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