Wenger backs Arsenal striker to show true class

It must have been a huge relief for Arsene Wenger as well as for the Arsenal and England international star Theo Walcott when he broke his pre-season duck against the Norwegian side Viking FK on Friday, as the manager is going to be without his main centre forward Olivier Giroud for at least the first game of the season.

Se aslo saw last season that Giroud alone is not enough to fire the Gunners to the Premier League title, so Walcott needs to chip in more and the boss has expressed his confidence in the fleet footed forward to do just that after reacting very well to being left out of the England squad that crashed out of Euro 2016.

Wenger told Arsenal Player that he expected Walcott to perform well this season and after he scored one again in the win over Manchester City, with a sweet strike that reminded us all just how good he can be when in form, you can understand why the manager is feeling confident.

He said, “I’ve said many times that we will get a strong season from Theo Walcott because he got hit hard and I saw how he responded. He went through a very tough time not being at the Euros with England, and I I observed him, saw how he responded and I am convinced that he will have a great season.

“We had a good combination with him on the right and Alexis up front.”

Wenger may be confident but it is the confidence that Theo feels in his own ability that I think is key. We know that Walcott can do it and a few years ago he proved that on a consistent basis with his best ever haul of 21 goals in a season.

If he does that again and he and Giroud can stay fit, will that be enough to spearhead a title challenge or does Wenger still need a big name signing up top?

Bob.

Tags Giroud Walcott

32 Comments

  1. All right.
    I guess he would be staying upfront till giroud returns then wait for welbeck.

    You know a liverpool thumping wouldnt be that bad.
    It will make wenger open the chequebook.

    It has always been like this every season so I dont expect different results

    1. Reasons why Liverpool thumping might actually hurt us.
      1. Losing opening game of the season,dropping valuable points at home.
      2. Players losing momentum/form from the pre-season games.
      3. Fans unrest.
      4. Media criticism
      5. Having to play catch up to other teams to stay in the mix would mean rushing some players back.(eg. Koscielny,Giroud,Ozil).
      6. Possibility of further injuries as players are rushed back and some players are not given adequate rest(eg. Cazorla,Sanchez)
      7. Wenger opening the chequebook only to sign panic buys and deadwoods like Andre Santos,Park Chu Young.

      In conclusion we cannot affored to lose the season opener. If we win against Pool,great..if we draw..ok…but if we lose all hell will break loose..

        1. Not hard for Mertz to be decent
          when the competition consists of
          useless Djourou, injury prone
          Vermaelen erratic injury prone Gabriel
          and 16 mill flop Chambers.
          Arteta was weak at best and passed sideways all game.
          Respect to Ozil but we should have bought Suarez or Higuain.

        2. Arteta : last 3 seasons spent mostly injured,now retired and part of coaching squad at City.

          Mertesacker : Declining rapidly with age,injured for 5 months minimum.

          Ozil was a panic buy but his transfer was only facilitated because of Bale. If Spurs had held onto Spurs for one more season we might not have got Ozil.

        3. I don’t know how people can tell the difference from a panic buy, because Wenger basically told everyone he prefers to wait til deadline day. He opportune buys, people may believe opportune my ass, but that’s what he says.

  2. Only thing this guy is useful for is sweetener as part of deal to bring in quality attacker …he epitomizes the 4th place mediocrity that we have become under wenger’s guidance

  3. Not a personal attack on Theo but consider this.

    Last summer we get heavily linked to Benzema,
    Theo : ” I want to be a striker. ”

    This year we get linked to Mahrez.
    Theo : ” I want to play on the right wing.”

    Why does he come out with these statements. Does he fear competition? Is he unsure of his place in the team? Is it because he realizes he is on borrowed time ??

    Regardless, he did play well against City and scored a good goal.
    I hope and pray that Theo has a blinder of a season so we don’t regret not signing a striker and Wenger can say ” I told you so.”

  4. I cant believe this.
    Wenger is really going to start the season without anymore signings.
    How can anyone in his right mind feel comfortable with such a desperately needy squad.

    We are 5 to 8 players short from actually challenging for major titles and wenger is there sitted on a huge pile of cash waiting for I dont know what to rescue him

    1. What did you expect. Welbeck was injured for the first half of the season last year too..Who did we sign as cover/replacement..nobody. Same thing this year too. Welbeck injured for God knows how long and instead of buying a quality player as cover/replacement we sign a nobody from J-League. Because selling shirts in Asia is more important than winning trophies.

      I will still support the team but dont have any expectations this year. In fact I think we won’t even make top 4 this year. Even West Ham might finish above us and we will end up as mid table mediocrity.

    2. Yeah we are short on players but common 5-8 players is a bit ridiculous. It’s not like we finish in the relegation zone or something ????

      1. The problem is Wenger normally buys people who are not really needed while ignoring gaping holes in the team. Why did Wenger spend £35M on Xhaka while we already had Elneny and Coquelin as holding players? That money could have got us a striker..what we really NEED!

        1. Because Xhaka offer something that Elneny or Coquelin can’t deliver. Xhaka is not only a CDM, he also could be play as deep lying play maker (DLP). Santi is the only DLP at the team before we signed Xhaka.
          Besides, that’s what big team do. They’ll make the team as deep as possible.

          1. But we also habe Ramsey and Wilshere as CM..isn’t that their job? We are stocking midfield with too many players at the expense of the striker position where we have basically 1 player..the mutant..half man half donkey.

          2. Big teams don’t start a new season with only one recognized striker(who might not even start the Liv. game). Also a big team would have bought a better striker than Giroud or if they wanted to keep Giroud as No. 1 atleast bought a decent cover/replacement for Giroud. Xhaka is a quality player no doubt but he is a luxury buy when you already have Cazorla,Elneny,Coquelin,Ramsey,Wilshere,Chambers,Iwobi all who can play in that position. If you are going to use Xhaka as a DLP to spray long passes behind the defence then you need to have a pacy forward who can make those runs which we lack(Theo is not a striker). For eg. Pirlo + Tevez/Morata ,Modric + Ronaldo/Benzema, Iniesta + Neymar/Suarez/Messi, Thiago + Lewandoski. Xhaka + Giroud does not make sense.

          3. if a signing like Xhaka does not impress you. I really don’t know what you guys want from Wenger.
            Besides, its not like Arsenal used up all their money on Xhaka and they’re broke now…the reason why Wenger doesn’t sign a striker is because he has’nt found a suitable candidate for the team…atleast thats what he says

            1. What we want is ambition AND a striker that scores goals NOT one that goes 16 games without a mark to his name
              That’s what we want from wenger and that’s what we deserve
              It’s not rocket science

        2. Do you recall our drubbing at the hands of the Saints? Yeah? That was because Coquelin was injured and there was no other DM in the team, besides Xhaka won the u17 W/C and were runners up at the u20 Euros a couple of years later, a couple of Swiss league titles, 3rd in Bundesliga as captain of Mochengladbach, the previous season, he performed below par but pulled himself up by the scruff of his shirt and stepped up to become captain of Borussia, he is not a nice guy even to himself and that quality, we severely lack in our players bar maybe Coquelin and Cech, Kosc too…do you still think he brings nothing to the team? A player who is not phased by the opposition is always a good thing.

  5. Clearly we aren’t going to sign another striker. AW convinced again through out those youngster attack. Even Theo convinced him now. One belief after another. Those belief was crashed out last season. With only Xhaka as his addition minus Danny boy,BFG and Gab for awhile, AW expects different result. Surely, no manager like him in this vary world. My God…

  6. That was to be expected anyway. There is no one you can buy now which will get straight into the first 11 let alone making an immediate impact to the team. Not even Ozil or Sanchez.
    That is what I said one week ago, loss management. Make sure we get 5 points at least from the first 3 games and we are still there from a potential 9 points leader/leaders. Don’t bomb it forward, be conservative. To be fair, we all know that a game against Liverpool can go either way, with or without reinforcements. Keep the walls for 30 minutes and then bite at them. That’s why experience in the defense will count just as much as a clinical finisher. That’s why I won’t play any youngster at CB, don’t care if they are taller. Protect them with 3 hard working midfielders, Xhaka, Coquelin, Ramsey (I know, I left Elneny out to cover for the first exhausted DM). Don’t care who’s in front as none except Sanchez are good finishers. Klopps gegenpressing is effective only if they score at least twice in the first half an hour. If that doesn’t happen we can build from there. And yes, playing Walcott against Liverpool is a no brainer. Their lines are so high up it would be a very bad idea not to field a runner in. Unfortunatelly, Walcott is mostly a runner and not a real goal scorer. We will see how that will go but I wouldn’t put us as clear losers against Liverpool. Remember, with Liverpool it can go any way, with or without reinforcements.

  7. He scored a nice goal, and I think he was involved with another goal, if he could do this every second game well then yeah great. Going purely on past events, you’d have to worry. Unless silverware is not a priority for you, in that case you can sit back relax and enjoy.

    1. From our past events, (even if he’s doing great) Theo runs will end up at 10 matches due to injury.

    2. Arsene has so much deadwood
      he can’t afford to spend any more.
      For 90% of Arsenal fans
      winning is too hard for them
      too painful a journey.
      Only 10% of us really want to win the title.
      We are the ones who rant because we don’t
      like the top 4 is good enough sustainable model.
      Its hard though when the owner is against winning titles
      because the risk and costs involved in mounting a
      serious campaign are seen to be too high.
      When the Manager gave up winning after Mourinho traumatized him in ’05-’06.
      Ferguson responded to Mourinho by winning three titles in a row.
      Wenger responded by withdrawing into world of denial and only
      reemerged when the “no titles are us top 4 will do” owner Kroenke arrived.
      The Manager’s main goal is to protect his 8 mill a year football addiction.
      by ensuring a profitable business for his Owner.
      Every season 220 million pounds goes to the Manager,
      25 players and a couple of other hangers on.
      Top 4 is a very profitable.
      Why change a winning formula?

  8. There was a player called Theodore
    Wenger thought he could score goals galore
    He couldn’t cross
    And in front of goal he looked lost
    We will just have to wait for a new manager before he is shown the door

    1. You are getting better..When is your mix tape out?? lol.

      By the way what happened to those fake conversations between Wenger,Gazidis and Kroenke you used to write about. Those were solid gold. Please write some more stuff like that and share it with us.

  9. Another day passes and lo and behold this ambitious title striving club are no closer to signing anyone and have opted to put their faith in Walcott. A guy who hasn’t come good in the past 10 years!

    Meanwhile Utd our direct rival have signed one of the biggest stars in world football and announced the deal using a UK grime artist.

    Just let that sink in for a moment.

    1. It’s obvious that all of that is for Man city and Pep Guardiola’s benefit. They wanted Pep, Pep snubbed them, the most sought after manager in the world. What do utd do, spend the most money ever on a player who isn’t even worth it, his position doesn’t even warrant it. If it’d been any of Neymar Suarez Ronaldo, now that would be something. Pogba is gettable, should have been gattable for 60m, but for manu it is more about the statement it sends out to the world. Mancity pffft ..Manu $$$$$$$.

  10. Oliver isn’t good enough! Theo isn’t good enough! Both are hot and cold, inconsistent and neither of them are prolific enough! We need another option up top, simple as that. Doesn’t have to be a big name/money forward, just another option, that will chip in with goals.

  11. This whole situation is utterly disgusting
    Walcott will perform the same as every other season in the last decade …unconvincingly and in a light weight manner
    We desperately need a striker AND a centre back yet there are no moves happening get for either and it’s now too late again the whole thing send the message out that we are an understanding ambitious and non competitive club
    I’m personally sick of it
    City have just got stones we brought in Asano ????
    We’re a laughing stock and in my opinion the sooner our fraud of a manager goes a separate way from the club the better

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