Will the real Theo Walcott please stand up!

Arsenal fans may be amazed by the improvements of Alexis Sanchez up top and the formidable back line of defence, but one player who cannot go without praise after his last few performances, is Arsenal and England international winger Theo Walcott.

It wasn’t too long ago that Walcott was celebrating his ten year anniversary of being at Arsenal football club, having joined the Gunners from Southampton back in 2006 as a teenager. Walcott had been expected to achieve greatness in his career and a lot has been invested in the winger during his ten years at the club, including a bumper £140,000 per week contract, however things haven’t quite gone as planned. Walcott’s time at the club has been very inconsistent and so poor have been some of Walcott’s campaigns, he has left many frustrated to the point where he has been dropped from both the Arsenal and England squads.

At the end of last season, many were calling for Walcott’s time at the club to come to an end. Despite the critical attention, Walcott as ever wishes to prove his critics wrong and this season he has started in great fashion, most recently having a fantastic game against Chelsea. Walcott started this campaign by missing a penalty against Liverpool, suggesting that some things never change, only for him to score moments later. The winger then also grabbed a goal against Chelsea this weekend to put the Gunners 2-0 up.

But Walcott’s goal against Chelsea wasn’t the only positive of his game, in fact he was seen to be performing to the highest standard both offensively and defensively. Walcott was seen tracking back to help Bellerin, showing strength against their attackers and being aware of his surroundings to change the direction of play.

Walcott has often been criticised for his lack of ball retention during his time at Arsenal, with the Englishman known for receiving the ball, only to lose it to the opposition moments later. Against Chelsea however, Walcott’s ball retention, tracking back and awareness of the opposition has shown how he has taken strides this season to get back to his former best.

It’s still too early in the season to say if Walcott is going to be a hit or miss this year, however given the way that the winger has started, I would say that he certainly deserves to keep his current place in the side, despite others pushing for a chance to start.

By AH

7 Comments

  1. Walcott was always going to improve on last season, he’d had a bad injuy sustained Vs Spurs which kept him out for a long time and since then he has struggled to find the form he was previously in and that only happens with time and games to gain your confidence back. Now he seems to have become a more complete player helping out the defence as we saw against Chelsea with more focus. It’s still early in the season but lets hope it lasts.

  2. Don’t you just love it when a player steps up, gives his all and continue to improve. You observe his tracking back is also good now. I used to be a huge Walcott fan but at some point got tired of him. We called him a player without football brains at times. Anyway good to see him step up and try to justify his pay. Go Walcott…We criticise you when you didn’t play well so now I hail you for stepping up.. .

    Even Bellerin is delighted with the understanding with Walcott. .

  3. It’s been all down to a shift in mindset from one that lied to him that he’s arrived just because he’s Theo Walcott, England’s youngest goalscorer and World Cup player and the best thing since sliced bread and the entitled attitude that follows naturally [hence wanting to play through the middle without first paying his dues on the wings, even Messi, Ronaldo, Henry, RVP and now Sanchez paid theirs ] to one where he can see his career going down the drain highlighted by his Euro snub, a jolt of reality that got him to roll up his sleeves and gave us the Walcott we now see, the disciplined and commited player we no longer have to beg to track back and visibly looking to improve all aspects of his game.

  4. Walcott has always been Walcott the problem has always been injuries/fitness and playing him outta position especially on the left flank.
    Arsenal have always operated with an esque of 4-4-2 even in 4231 or 433 where the left winger is more of a creative force and very good on the ball while the rightwinger is more or less a 2nd striker.
    check out all our LW over the years; Alexis,Cazorla,Gervinho,Arshavin,Nasri,Hleb,Pires they are all fantastic dribblers and on the ball players.
    playing Walcott on the LW as Wenger did in d 2nd half of last season is like fitting round pegs in square holes.

  5. Walcott upfront is good against teams that open up, against such teams; Ozil,n Cazorla etc can give those passes to Walcott to meet with his pace and give most times a one or two touch finish… eg Leicester
    against teams that are more reserved u need a striker that is good on the ball, this is why Walcott isn’t effective always upfront.
    Alexis on the other hand is both effective with the ball as he is a fantastic dribbler and without the ball has he has that sharp bust of pace and that is why he could become a phenom upfront.
    .
    Walcott best position is and has always been on the rightWing. mostly as a RWF not a RAM

  6. The has tended to have 1 good season then 1 bad, 1 good then one bad…
    I said that we would prob see a good Theo this season, no surprise for me.
    The pain will be when the end of the season comes, do we sell him after a good season or risk him having a bad year again?

    I don’t know…

    I will support him and have hope as long as he wears our badge.
    If he doesn’t keep it up then at least it shows players like Willock that the path to 1st team isn’t impossible >.<

    Wow at CB partnership, we all knew we got a world class CB but we didn't KNOW if he would settle quick enough etc… I am super happy with our def now and I think that has made it easier for Theo as Wenger does like to play out from the back. That and signing Xhaka, a CM who can tackle hard and pass well. Playing out from the back with possession based football will give our strikers more opportunities, esp as we are getting the ball back so nicely now.

    We can pressure them better now and use the pace of our attackers better without Giroud leading the line.

    This feels like Arsenal ^.^

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