We will have to wait and see just where the England international Theo Walcott plays most of his football for Arsenal this season, but the flying 26-year old forward has already made a good case for being able to play in the centre forward role as well as on either side of a front three.
Having just signed a bumper new contract that has put him among the club´s top earners, there is a lot of expectation from the Arsenal fans for Theo to push on and prove himself able to fire us to the success we want, including of course the Premier League title. As the boss told Arsenal Player, the time is now perfect for Walcott to silence his critics once and for all after his long injury lay-off.
Wenger said, “I think he’s at a moment of his career where he knows that it’s now time for him to completely fulfil his potential.”
His team mate Aaron Ramsey, not a bad goalscorer himself, knows what it is like to be sidelined with a serious injury. The Welshman has been at Arsenal with Walcott for many years now and he seems very confident that this season will be a brilliant one for the striker.
He told Arsenal Player, “He did very well at the end of last year. He’s had a good pre-season.
“He looks sharp, he looks strong and he can be dangerous.
“He is a goalscorer – he has a load of goals for Arsenal and I think he can carry that on and maybe get into the 100 Club this year.
“He’s a very strong character. He believes in his abilities and he definitely has a lot of qualities to offer.
“He can finish – one of the hardest things to do in football is to put the ball in the back of the net and he’s done it on numerous occasions for Arsenal. Hopefully he can continue doing that.”
So it is clear that the Arsenal players and manager have full confidence in Walcott, proven by his new contract, but the most important point of view is his own. And listening to his words about the club and his desire to do well for us tells me all I need to know about his attitude at the minute.
The England star told the Arsenal website, “It’s nice to get things resolved before the start of the season. I’ve always enjoyed playing for this club, I love this club. I’ve been here nearly 10 years now and it’s my second home.
“The manager has been fantastic to me. The players, the coaching staff, everyone at the club itself, the people that you don’t see on the inside and, most importantly, the fans have all been amazing.
“The Emirates is a great stadium to play your football in and this team is very special. I think we can go places this year and move on from the success of the FA Cup. I want to be a part of that.”
So everything is in place for Walcott to get some real glory on a personal level and for the club it seems. Will he get the 24 goals to make it 100 up for the Gunners? And will he be celebrating a first title with Rambo and the prof come May?
He still needs to prove he can handle CF. However, as a winger he is fantastic and can score loads of goals.
Walcott on the right and Alexis on the left With Ozil in CAM and Giroud/New CF up front is perfect imo
Don’t go too far,
Sanchez______Welbaked____Theo
(I won’t worry much if a better striker isn’t available)
Theo is no ST, I agree he needs to prove himself there but I don’t see it working aside from against poor teams and in the last 20mins to play counter attack.
Been reading a lot of comments about this ST situation and seeing several fans claim we don’t need goals and that a new ST isn’t necessary or Benzema isn’t important. Well let me throw this out there…The goal tallies for the last 6 champions are as follows (with Arsenal in comparison):
Chelsea 73 –> Arsenal 71 (3rd)
City 102 –> Arsenal 68 (4th)
United 86 –> Arsenal 72 (4th)
City 93 –> Arsenal 74 (4th)
United 78 –> Arsenal 72 (4th)
Chelsea 103 –> Arsenal 83 (3rd)
The last 6 years we’ve averaged 73.3 goals in the league whilst the champions have averaged 89.2. To AVERAGE 16 goals less over 38 games is a ton of firepower to make up, and I’m sorry but Giroud and Theo have been present along the way – how they’re suddenly supposed to overcome that is purely fanciful thinking by our fans.
Add to this Wenger stating on July 24th ie 3 weeks back “Our target is to improve our number of goals..” and I find it crazy to listen to these fans try and argue that we’re well covered on the goal front. Liverpool finished 2nd a couple of seasons back for no other reason than they scored 102 goals in the league.
Yes you need defensive solidity, but that’s not going to drastically change from any 1 purchase. I know the simple minded like to say Coquelin was the reason for our defensive resilience last year, but while he contributed heavily, the main reason was a change in tactics/organisation/ethos. We play great attacking football so is the reason we don’t score enough because our attacking philosophy is poor or because our lead ST/s are merely good rather than top class? Fact is Arsenal don’t score enough in the league to threaten to be Champions, and we won’t until we get a top drawer CF. Wenger is clearly aware too or we wouldn’t bother pursuing Benz and would’ve snapped up Vidal/Schneiderlin.
‘I know the simple minded like to say Coquelin was the reason for our defensive resilience last year, but while he contributed heavily, the main reason was a change in tactics/organisation/ethos.’
Agree 100% with you on this one Charlie.
I personally think our midfield dynamic often gets confused and viewed too simply as DM and B2B. Arteta is more of a DLP than ever a DM. His two most frequent partners were Ramsey and Song who played a much more pro-active role in winning the ball back than shielding the defence. Watching the team last year I feel it was Santi who took over Arteta’s role more than Coquelin. Distribute, maintain possession and keep shape as the main priority. When we’re withstanding heavy pressure of in trouble he plays a more protective role, but while we have numbers behind the ball that added organisation affords Coquelin the opportunity to anticipate, take more risks and win the ball back in dangerous positions. Transition and work-rate’s a big strength in our current squad, I feel when our designated ball-winner is doing his job effectively it adds to that strength.
But one of the biggest changes in our defensive solidarity I feel came on the flanks. A few seasons ago we had Podolski and Theo with often with Santos (shudder!) and an inexperienced Jenkinson. A very, very stark contrast to Ramsey and Sanchez, with Bellerin/Debuchy and Monreal/Gibbs behind them. We may as well have had a big sign saying ‘come f@#k me here’ on our left side, but now I highly doubt any team would view it as anything but problematic for them at both ends of the pitch. (and judging by the impact of Ox against IMO the best LB in the league there may be a few more options.. And he tracks back as well)
And though I’m going to get thumbed down galore… I think Ramsey’s the reason we didn’t pursue the players you’ve mentioned. As a ball-winner he’s actually pretty damn good at reading the game, pressing and effectively tackling. Before he decided to establish himself as a serious goal threat and was playing beside Arteta he was winning the ball back for us brilliantly. Wenger’s really never criticizes players openly, so when he claimed Ramsey has become ‘obsessed by goals’ I was a bit shocked, but then watched him a little more closely and he really was neglecting his defensive strengths to join the attack at every possible moment.
It was only Lyon, but personally I thought his performance was the best individual performance of any of our players this pre-season. His play was so balanced in defensive help and joining the attack in a much more responsible manner. If you’re at all sceptical watch the highlights again. Near on every goal we scored was from turnovers and Ramsey was either the one to win the ball back or in a great defensive position and he busts his gut to be the extra number while we break.
haha sorry for rambling, but in regards to your main point, yep. If the media, the loan moves and exits are anything to go by Wenger is definitely making room for an established attacker IMO.
if i were the arsenal manager, i would have sold jw to man city for 40m, then sell ozil to juve for another 40m or more and that would leave me with 130m to spend…i would then buy schneiderlin for 23m, make carzola play the number 10 position, convince tevez to play for one more season then buy reus for 45m, then spend the rest on top quality youngsters like that roma defender and voila! ….complete squad!!!
but am just a plastik fan
40+40=130? WTF dude…
That’s why he is not Arsenal’s manager!!
This is the season for our “speed merchant” theo to shine and bang in the goals! Coyg!
I still believe G-rude will fire us to de title. jx be optimistic.
NO comment.
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Who’s seen my unicorn?
giroud will only lead us to more agony because he really knows to remind us of how useless he can sometimes be
Giroud is hugely under estimated. This guy was just four goals shy of hitting the 20 goal mark last season (note that he was 3 months out due to injury). If he remains fit through out this season, i believe together with Theo they can give us about 35 goals minimum.
Hope theo excells in the new season and all the best to him! Coyg!
Whippets don’t win big trophies … 140 grand a week tells me all I need to know about wenger’s state of mind …the f****** king Lear of the BPL … If he brings in a serious quality attacking option might reassess but at this point if we are pinning our hopes on Sanchez giroud Walcott it’s another 3rd place at best … If it’s Sanchez benzema ox then I think baring injuries we can move ahead … Sanchez benzema griezman is how a club with real ambition would line up
I hope Wenger did not set his mind on putting Walcott as a CF (like he did with Wilshere as a number 10 for the first 15 games last season… It was a deluded move and cost us greatly… 5 wins in 15 games… This is where we lost the EPL if we were to win it!), that is Giroud position (the only real striker we have) and Walcott can play there in intermittence.
If we want to win the league we need everything to go well:
-Way less injuries
-Tactical acumen from Wenger
-Win all the games against the lesser teams (this is the EPL, but we cannot loose against the Swansea and the rest)
-Forget about the CL (we won’t win it anyway)
-The EPL should be the “only” priority.
Why was Akpom allowed to leave for Hull??
I truly believe he is a more clinical finisher than Welbeck (who has been injured for almost 4 months… typical Arsenal story…!!)
We absolutely need a striker and another DM.
If Coquelin gets a long term injury, we have f*ck all as an alternative.
Off Topic, and slightly off Arsenal.
Really annoyed at West Ham. They sacrificed Europa League football by putting a rubbish starting XI out just so they have a rested team to face us this weekend. 9/10 times they’ll lose 3-0 at the Emirates anyways. Just optimises Premier League teams’ lack of respect for the Europa league. Guarenteed Liverpool will do the same when the tournament starts, just as they did last year. I don’t get why – their target is to qualify for the CL, and honestly they have a better chance of qualifying by winning Europa than finishing in the top 4.
But why do I really care? Well as we all know, the Premier League is under serious threat of losing our 4 CL places to Italy. By West Ham not bothering to gain any points for the Prem, it just makes it harder for the PL to keep its 4th spot.
Walcott has rediscovered
his scoring touch.
If he stays fit he will score
40 + goals and yes will
propel Arsenal to EPL glory.
But can he stay fit?
1) Alexis – Walcott – Oxlade-Chamberlain (Current first choice lineup)
2) Alexis – Giroud – Walcott
3) Alexis – Giroud – Oxlade-Chamberlain
4) Alexis – Welbeck – Walcott
5) Alexis – Welbeck – Oxlade-Chamberlain
6) Welbeck – Giroud – Walcott (A little bit of height up front)
7) Welbeck – Walcott – Oxlade-Chamberlain (All English)
8) Oxlade-Chamberlain – Giroud – Walcott (Proper wing play)
9) Alexis – Gibbs – Walcott (Now you’re losing it Twig!)
10) Monreal – Gibbs – Bellerin (Defence first tactic)
I’m not suggesting it’ll be the most attacking of team-choices…
But if Le Coq and Cazorla is our first choice pairing in the deep, Ramsey’s probably going to be in strong consideration for the right. Probably more if Theo’s at striker than Giroud.
I know theo will come good
this season to find his feet in his new role
and next season the champions league
Di Maria joins PSG for 63 million. Is he really worth that much after the season he had? He wasn’t as exceptional as Sanchez was. Just for interest sake, how much would Sanchez cost PSG from Arsenal?
If Ozil and Le Coq get injured, this team will fall apart.
Can’t help but think something is up. Akpom and Gnarby is allowed to go out on loan, with Welbeck injured albeit (according to Wenger) close to recovery, and being left with only Walcott and Giroud, I think that another striker might be on the way. The nose around Benzema just won’t go away, maybe its just a slow media fused transfer season or maybe just maybe there is some substance in this persistent rumor.