Arsene Wenger was rightfully full of praise for the way that the Arsenal and England international star Theo Walcott has been playing this season after the flying forward played another big part in our latest win, the 3-0 demolition of London rivals and bogey team Chelsea.
As well as his praise of Walcott, the Evening Standard reported Wenger’s comments on why he thinks Theo is doing so well and the Frenchman thinks it is all down to his attitude. Wenger feels that the Walcott we are seeing now is a much more committed version than the one that has so often flattered to deceive.
He said, “I think you cannot question his performance. I believe more the change of Theo Walcott is his attitude this season.
“He’s ready to fight, commit and you know that straightaway he gets the crowd behind him. Theo Walcott of that stature is a completely different player.”
It really was remarkable to see Theo racing back and getting stuck in with tackles to stop Chelsea getting any sort of way back into the game and his own words after the game, reported by the Arsenal website, suggest to me just why his attitude has changed. I think it all down to the fact that he really believes in the current Arsenal team and their ability to win the title and of course he wants to be a part of that.
Walcott said, “I’m still getting my breath back! We worked really hard, we worked hard in the week and we obviously know what’s happened in the past. But the past is the past, it’s all about now and this team is bright and young and has got a lot more experience in these games now. People would expect us to go on and get four or five but that’s not the case. You saw on the kick-off this morning, it’s always easy to actually get 11 men behind the ball and they’ve got to come for us then. And then it plays into our hands. But the guys did well today, really well done.
“When we played Man United at home last year it was fantastic, but I think it’s been quietly coming actually, to be honest with you. We’ve been quietly doing our business and like I said, everyone is just working for eachother now. We’ve got some great individuals but when you get those individual stats you play as a team as well, everyone is focused and you could see that the 11 men wanted to win this more than the other team today and thankfully we did that.
“You know what, we’ve been here before. I’ve had so much experience in the years, but like I say, we’re not doing ourselves any harm. We just want to keep on doing our business, that’s all we want to do. We want to try and improve and see what the negatives were in the game, I’m sure there’ll be a few. We always wanted to keep a clean sheet, if we keep clean sheets we’re going to win games because we can score goals up front, so you’ve got to give credit to everyone today.
“It was a great move and I’d like to get 10 more of those a season. They’re nice, but I was in the right place at the right time and I was pleased with that. But like I say, I’m more pleased with the three points and we’ve obviously got a big game on Wednesday now. We’ve got to recover well, there’s games coming thick and fast now and that’s why I’m leaning against this wall right now!
“Yeah, watching the PSG game on the side when I didn’t travel, you could sense in that game particularly that it was a tough game for us but we got through it and we got a very good point. You could just see the experience and the years in the Champions League, hopefully it’s bedding in to this team now. In years gone by we know how it’s been with Chelsea and the most important thing is today we kept 11 men on the pitch. It was important for everyone to be very disciplined and we were today. Our two centre backs were fantastic with Costa today, really good.”
If the Arsenal players believe and it makes them play like Walcott has been doing, could this be the season when the Gunners are crowned champions once more?
Bob.
We are still 5 points behind the leader and 1 under the Scums. It is so early in the season to talk about title credentials for everyone (not only Arsenal) that we should sit back and actually just enjoy the last win. make no predictions.
Walcott had a cracker against Manure last season. I enjoyed that. We know how that ended. Question is, can he deliver just the same week in, week out?
@Budd,
I believe there could be a “healthy” talk about title credentials. That is giving yourself a target, and constantly reminding yourself of that target…As long as it doesn’t lead to bragging, I guess it’s ok.
I don’t like the way some people are saying we have a load of easy games coming up, I didn’t hear them say that about anyone else who played lower half clubs. Anyone can beat anyone with the right set of circumstances, we need our players and our fans to treat these next games like we’re in a title fight.
I think it’s hard for any player week in and out to,perform to the standard required. That’s why you need a good squad to bring in and rest players. Walcott will give his best now he knows that he has raised the bar Good for him and good for the team. CB
Really happy for Walcott, his performance this season is breathtaking. Now he need to put in the same effort week in week out, he need to do it for himself and Wenger, the person who stuck by him from the age of 16.
Now everyone can see why Wenger loaned out Campbell, unlike Campbell the problem with Walcott and Ox is not the ability but the mentality, I’d hope the Ox can put in a shift as well.
You’d burn out too quickly playing at that tempo in every game, and many injuries. He needs to manage himself better, the team does. It is not the terrific performances like that which win titles (although it can’t hurt), it’s all the grinding it out wins.
A sweet win with a fantastic team performance. Let’s keep it up. Consistence in all regards is key to our title win. We should not be some games hero.
Last season walcott started well, got injured then when he came back seemed to be more concerned about not getting injured again, and his form suffered.
Lets hope he stays injury free and has a good season.
I’d rest Walcott in our next game, play him at the weekend. Or have him on the bench v Basel.
I think Walcott was surprised they didn’t hand him the motm award, and Iwobi seemed shocked by it.
It is just the start of the season. We Normally have a physical and form slip in Nov and Feb. And again this time in Nov we have to face Spurs (H), Man U (A) and PSG (H) in consecutive matches. To be honest they are are all distracting games and if we can come out without losing anything I guess we have a good Chance to end up either with a EPL or CL. And the next set of difficult consecutive matches in may and I hope by then the EPL winner is kind of settled. But said that I don’t think any of the EPL Team is a walkover we will Need to be winning the dirty games. And for that the complete squad has to run until end of may. After a Long time we have a good squad depth and we should be able to compensate injuries and dip in form any time. We just Need to make sure that he Boys (and men) playing in the Cup games are not rusty and for that we Need to Keep progressing in those competitions too.
Regarding Walcotts form I guess he is reaping rewards for what Iwobi is doing the other side with Alexis upfront. Alexis on the wing is pretty selfish sometime so when the ball goes there the defenders know he is going to have a go at the goal. With Giroud up front creating space for the wingers but they know they have to cover only Alexis. Now with Iwobi with same attributes as Alexis bar his selfishness defenders are confused against our front three. All the three has speed and shooting skill. All of them are proper wingers so dribbling in tough areas is not a issue. So Walcott is beniftting because of the partnership. But the real issue is when Giroud is back, if he is playing I could suggest Ramsey to play as number 10 instead of Ozil. Ozil for all his attributes is a poor shooter (even the Goal he scored against Chelsea was a poor shot). Ramsey is better at it and Giroud can create the Space Ramsey and the wingers wants to get into the shooting position.
Let’s see where we are at end of November it, will give a good indication.
don’t bring Ramsey into this talk. Please please and please. we don’t want our blood pressure to go high.