Theo Walcott rewarded Arsene Wenger’s confidence in him by scoring a first-half hat-trick as Arsenal demolished West Brom in our last game of the season, and the Gunners boss revealed that he was convinced that Theo was ready for the role even before yesterday’s game. “He was already sharp when he came on in our midweek game against Sunderland.” Wenger revealed after the match. “He was the one who created the chances and I always said that he could play through the middle because he has good movement, good finishing and he did that well today.
“Everybody adapts to the qualities of the players. The style is a bit different [with Walcott in the team].
“He’s a good goalscorer but he has been out for a year. A year in football is a long, long time and it takes more time to come back to your best so that you are sharp and confident. Jack is a bit similar. He has been out for six months and now he is coming back. He had a very convincing performance in the first half.
“He’s the right age to play through the middle. He’s 26 years old, it’s a good age for a footballer. I wish that he stays free of injuries now. He had a few downs on the injury front and that’s never good. You have to be consistently present to express your full potential.
“Without his hat-trick or with his hat-trick, we want him to stay. We are in negotiations and we have started to speak with his agent. We did that before he scored his hat-trick. Last time he got injured he was playing centre forward in a very convincing game against Tottenham Hotspur in January. He got injured and was out for a year. On that day he was injured playing up front.”
So it seems that Walcott is going to get his wish to be the new Thierry Henry, but the main thing must be that he stays out of the treatment room for a whole season. It certainly now seems extremely unlikely that Arsenal will be buying a new striker this summer, but you can imagine how distressed we will all be if Theo gets injured again in the first month of next season. In his ten seasons at Arsenal he has only managed more than 20 League starts twice, but hopefully Wenger’s patience with his prodigy’s comeback this year will have helped him toughen up ahead of next season’s assault on the Premier League title.
Come on Theo!!!