There were thousands of Arsenal transfer rumour stories linking us with Karim Benzema in the summer, with lesser rumours saying that Arsene Wenger wanted to bring in other frontmen like Aleksandr Kokorin or Jackson Martinez, but Le Prof stayed aloof from all the fans and pundits alike who kept imploring him to buy another striker to challenge Olivier Giroud for our centre-forward slot.
Wenger now says that he was correct to keep the money in the bank, as he always knew that Theo Walcott would come good and become our main central striker. He told the BBC: “Theo looks always dangerous in this position. The quality of his movement is outstanding and he has found his finishing again,”
“I believe Theo can be a central striker,” added Wenger. “But at the start of the season, I faced questions from everybody: ‘why don’t you buy a central striker?’
“So sometimes you have to have strong beliefs and show the players as well that you believe in them in that position.
“I always said that he will play through the middle and he got his knee injury when he played well through the middle against Tottenham. It took him a while to come back, I must say.”
It is a bit early for Wenger to say ‘I told you so’ after just eight games, but so far it looks like his (calculated) gamble has paid off. Don’t forget that if Walcott gets his usual injury at this time of year then we are just left with a mis-firing Giroud and an injured Danny Welbeck as backup….