I was glad to see that the Arsenal and England international star Theo Walcott was quick to hold his hand up and accept the blame for his part in the opening goal of the game between Arsenal and Manchester United on Saturday, scored by Juan Mata when the Spaniard was allowed too much space to run into the penalty area and sweep home the ball by Ander Herrera.
The flying forward admitted in his post match comments reported by The Independent that he really should have done better on the goal and that he failed to rack Mata when it was his job to do so.
Walcott said, “I’m just disappointed [with Mata’s goal] because my positioning on the goal was disappointing from my side of it.
“Because, defensively, I want to [cover that]. I’ve been doing that all season. I know that [Mata] was my man to get in there [and stop from scoring]. So from a personal perspective, that’s very disappointing for myself.
“But the guys, they did well, and we managed to get that point that we deserved. Maybe in years gone by, we would have lost that game.
“We need to turn these draws into wins… But in years gone by, this is a very tough place for us to play and we managed to get a result today.”
In other years this would probably not have merited a mention as Theo was never exactly renowned for his tracking back of his defensive work, but that has changed this season. As he says, that has been one of the ways in which the 27-year old has improved his game and so by accepting that he did not do his job at Old Trafford, can Arsenal fans expect to see Theo getting stuck in again from now on?
Bob.