Walcott speaks out about his return to form!
Theo Walcott on form may be a rare sight given his last few campaigns, but after a strong start to this season, the media hasn’t given him so much attention and his critics are very much off his back. Being able to improve on the sidelines has allowed Walcott to step up a gear and find his feet, in an attempt to have him return to the style of football he played a few years back, when he was arguably our main man on form for a while.
Walcott has had a mixed career during his ten years at Arsenal, because although he has had a few seasons of success, he has still largely underproduced with the expectations that were on his shoulders. Perhaps there was far too much expectation and promise on his shoulders as a young player and so we have grown up to criticise him against heights of what is expected of him, rather than what we know he is capable of. However after an impressive start to this campaign, with some vital goals and more importantly in my eyes, a clear desire, hunger and passion to not only stride forward with the ball, but to also put pressure on the opposition, Theo Walcott may finally be on his way back to form.
Walcott has impressed me most because of the way how he has worked hard both offensively and defensively this season. During the game against Chelsea he proved that point exactly, by tracking back to help Bellerin on various occasions, as well as proving pretty well that he is capable of making a decent interception or two. Walcott also used strength against the opposition and that’s not something we have often seen from the English winger, who normally loses the ball with ease when he comes under pressure from the opposition.
Walcott himself has been talking to the media about his return to form and he puts it down to working hard and having a confident mindset that will surely help him to re-establish himself not only for Arsenal, but for England as well.
Walcott said: “I’ve worked hard from the back end of last season and I’ve just continued to do that throughout the whole summer. I generally forget about the game that’s just happened and move on to the next one. I just want to be better than I was the day before. (The new mindset) probably came from myself. I found it difficult last year — coming towards the end of the season I didn’t get my opportunities but I was still working hard.“I spoke to many people and it maybe woke up something in my system.
“I am completely different. I just want to be better and better. People have had so much faith in me and I tend to think I need to repay people. But I also think I need to do it for myself now. Maybe in the past I was thinking about others and not myself.”
It sounds almost as if Walcott plans on reintroducing himself as a brand new player, or as Wenger is likely to put it, as a ‘new signing’. In my opinion Walcott has definitely woken up to realise that after being snubbed by both Arsenal and England at the end of last season, he has a massive point to prove and that it needs to come now in this season. Walcott undoubtedly worked hard during the time off in the summer and hopefully we see this kind of form he is producing now, continue throughout the course of the season.
By AH