Theo Walcott has revealed that a ‘passionate’ Arsene Wenger reminded his team at half-time what was at stake as they came in level against Wigan on Tuesday night.
If Arsenal could feel somewhat aggrieved at Wigan’s equaliser, they were also guilty of not taking their chances, with Laurent Koscielny spurning a great opportunity to double Arsenal’s lead before Wigan scored.
And the England winger said that a ‘rocket’ from the manager set the team up for their second half display which saw them move back into fourth place and relegate the cup holders.
“We got a rocket. We’ll keep that in the dressing room,” he said. “But it’s great that the manager has that passion and it got a bit more out of the players. We all knew how big it is, not just for the manager but the fans, the players and the club itself.
“It’s massive to be in the Champions League. The manager gave us a kick up the backside. I felt we did show some good play in the first half but we didn’t manage to take our chances. Thankfully we did in the second.”
21 goal Walcott also believes that having been in this position before, even going to down to the final day, will count as Arsenal face Newcastle on Sunday.
“We just have great experience in knowing what to do when the time is right. Ut’s funny, it happens every year. We tend to finish very strong. I think it is just because the players want it so much. We need to show that in the mid-season and at the start and we could hopefully be even higher than we are and not have this situation that we are in.
“The Champions League is big for the future of the club and the players. We have been in it for the last 15 years and we don’t want to be the players who are not part of that. The Europa League is great, but it’s all eyes on the Champions League at the moment for us.”
One more win will do the trick, fingers crossed.
Here’s something that will give us Arsenal fans a good laugh! Have a good morning everyone!
http://fuldans.se/?v=tpoljgeecn
How does that type of thing suit on wenger..??…….. You have a weird sense of humour…..
if it did suit him it wouldn’t really be as funny. But that’s my opinion.
I know it’s a bit old but no idea why it’s being downvoted. It’s awesome.
I downvoted because I can’t view it on my iPhone. Darn flash player…
should do a merteswagger 1
Wenger has some fine moves.
I’ve heard this ‘it happens every year’ relating to our good end of season form from lots of journalists too. It amazes me how short people’s memories are, before last year we had about 4 years of being terrible from March to May.
I agree 100%. People have terrible memories, and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. 07-08 (eduardo at birmingham) we collapsed at the end, 09-10 we did it again (do it for aaron), 10-11 we collapsed a from a quadruple winning position, I still don’t know how we didn’t win something that year. In recent seasons only last year did we ‘finish strongly’ and even then we limped over the line!
Least you forget last season, like the seasons before, we have lost big players and brought in many replacements. The quality of those brought in and the reasons for selling players is an argument for another day. But each transition and tweak of system to deal with ease changes always takes times, hence the poor starts. We finish strong because the group of players start to gel and get used to each other, which is why I’m is frustrating when the summer unsettles that. It’s surprising that gooners don’t consider this. The reason I am optimistic for next season is… Read more »
I agree with you, that has happened over the last 2 seasons but what happened in 2010-11? We didn’t have a disruptive summer (unless you count the cesc dna stuff) and we lost no big players. We had a good start, but collapsed inexplicably at the end.
World cup years make.it a very long season indeed and we where in an unhappy middle ground in that we had lots of international players, but not the depth of United or Chelsea, also didn’t Cesc get badly injured around Christmas that year?
That was my favourite Arsenal side in recent years. To think we had a starting line up with RVP, Theo, Nasri, Cesc, Jack and Song. Wow. No wonder we beat Barca..
I actually think that 10-11 was very similar to 07-08, except instead of the nuclear impact that the Birmingham game had (Eduardo, last minute dodgy penalty, dropping points, Gallas’ meltdown), it was a series of smaller kicks in the bollocks, that just threw our season off.
Actually, I think in 10-11 it was pretty much the same–losing the League Cup to Birmingham had a nuclear impact on our season and our confidence.
Very true, was thinking the same. We’ve either started well and finished dismally, or the other way around. If only we could start well and finish well eh?! It’s frustrating because our form in the last few months has been exceptional, if only we could maintain that we’d genuinely be challenging the top clubs – even with this current squad which we all know is one of Wenger’s weakest.
Yeah really, I’ve noticed a few comments along those lines as well and its odd because the last couple of years we’ve done almost the exact opposite of what we generally used to do! I assume that the poor starts in this season and last have pretty much made it essential to play better in the last few months but its just so frustrating at times – its like we can either do great for 6 months and crap for 3, or crap for 6 months then great… would be very nice if we could just cut out the crap… Read more »
Looking forward to next season a lot, the team has really started to glue together now. Add one or two stellar signings this summer, I think silverware next season is definitely on the cards. One big push against Newcastle and let the good times roll.
It’s nice to see so much positivity on Arseblog – good to know there are optimistic fans out there as well as the fire-breathing Wenger haters.
I know Wenger isn’t the hairdryer type – but I wish he’d given them a rocket in some of the other games – Southampton, Norwich and Bradford spring to mind…
(Sorry beforehand for the optimism)……
We have a good squad now with a mixture of youth and experience……… Our financial restrictions are lifted….. Money seems to be coming in……. no key players seem to be leaving…….. wenger’s hopefully determined to finish the last year of his contract strongly……… so….
The 2013-14 season……
After ten long years……
The Return of the Invincibles………..
Why apologise?
Personally, I’ve been thinking about this (admittedly not as an invincible team – think i need to change my stance after recent form!) and quite frankly can’t wait!! The team should be top
(top) quality next year. We just need that win on Sunday though to be fair.
We need a few world class players for that, but certainly the potential is pleasing, we meed to find the system that suits us the most and give it a go, this season it was quality that almost cost us, not attitude which used to kill us, if we solve the quality side we can be a surprise mex year.
You’ve got me all excited now! And as a 16 year-old they’ve introduced cheaper ticket prices so I can now go to almost every home game! The good days could be returning!
Just make sure you don’t get any older sonny Jim!
it all depends on the Newcastle game. If we win, we could get some big names in. If we don’t, all our transfer business will be made a LOT harder this summer.
Imagine that! From scraping fourth to being unbeaten all season.
Unfortunately, the Premier League seems to be less forgiving of draws at the top of the table now. In our Invincibles season we got to 90 points; United could have beaten that this year.
Harish
Our new invincibles have already got started!
We won’t win anything under wenger next season or ever again .if the players need a rocket at half time that says everything about this terrible team .walcot is such a wimp.
Sorry everybody, we cant keep an eye on him as we are so short staffed due to the cuts.
Come on Mr. Kelly, lets get you back, its nearly time for your meds.
[…] back to Tuesday night, and Theo Walcott has revealed that Arsene Wenger gave the team a bit of a going over at the half-time […]
Does anyone else cringe when they read/hear Theo Walcott talking or is it just me?
Why cringe?
“The manager gave us a rocket, but we’ll keep that in the dressing room”
In that very sentence he failed to keep it in the dressing room…
y’know, i think y’know, what he actually meant y’know, was keeping the y’know, specifics of the y’know, conversation/rocket in the y’know, dressing room
I don’t know – I can’t put my finger on it. It’s like he’s media trained to high heaven and only saying things he thinks people want to hear. It’s also the way he delivers it. Really gets under my skin. I know it shouldn’t, but I can’t help but find him massively annoying when he speaks.
No I get it, its not something you can logically explain per se. It bugs me sometimes, it doesn’t other times.
But you for sure as hell know that he’s gotten media training from his management.
I think Arseblog suffers that disease too. Theophobia – an immense unexplained hatred of Theo Walcott.
Its nit just you Theo always makes me cringe everytime and no i cant explain it neither. But i do find Schzney to be very annoying when he talks for some reaon i more than anything get pissed off with the nonsense he comes out with.
Arsene is very good at finishing in the top 4, because that’s the objective (or the minimum requirement as he puts it) that they set for him. If there was more pressure on him from the top to challenge (at least) for the top, I’m not sure we would be out of the race in November.
That WAS the objective before, with financial restraints lifted I doubt it will be the objective anymore.
Strongly agree, we need to shift the goal posts.
No pun intended.
Who else in the league could have lost his (by far) top goalscorer, the year after losing his best player, and still finished with more points than last year? If we beat Newcastle than this is a terrific achievement for this squad. Is it good enough to be always fighting for 3rd/4th? Absolutely not but now our finances are completely different, we won’t be losing any of our stars this summer and we can actually start building on what we have instead of desperately fixing what we lost. COYG
On a positive note, it has been 11 games unbeaten since we won at Munich. Call me a dreamer, but I think a new Invincible Arsenal team is forming up again. I’d like to see this run to last all year next season.
COYG!
I like your optimism, but the invincible’s where stronger in every position and with more depth.
But keep in mind that their opposition was also far stronger. Manure and Chelsea were in their golden eras and Liverpool wasn’t exactly weak.
Can I also just say that after the Tottenham defeat we were languishing 7 points behind Spurs. And people were saying that we essentially could not loose another single match for the rest of the season, and laughed it off as impossible with this squad, and were resigned to a loss but just praying for the least embarrassing scoreline at Munich. I should know, I was one of them. A week later this squad not only beat but shut Bayern Munich out at the Alianz then went on this unbeaten run. Just goes to show, you just never know what… Read more »
Heh! walcott saw wengers rocket and scored. It sounds wrong on many levels
My dog often gets his red rocket out
Keep it in the dressing room, blogs
I love walcott. Even when the team is having a slow day with goals I’m always optimistic he’ll do something. Even a long punt by cazorla, arteta etc I always look forward to walcott being on the end of it. Gets the ballp, terrorises the defence with absolute speed. Leaves the defender shitting bricks (not coz of skill purely on the fact that he might leave you where you stand!) when he runs at them… Just like the rest of ya’ I call for consistency. Once he manages that then boy! He’s was a friend (gonna puke) to skunk and… Read more »
My comment blogs?
What?
I think maybe theo should play upfront against newcastle since he scored a hattrick the last time he played there as a striker and poldi also scored from the wing.
That man GIROUD is back!
If the Santi,Theo and Poldi that played Tuesday turn up Sunday it will be hard for anyone to live with, let alone Pardeaux’s lot.
Guiness – check
Valium – check
Sorted for Sunday, Come on you Gunners!!! 3rd place is there for the taking!!!!
Hope that the kicks were issued at the start of the season itself and for every match… Hope that Wenger gets his virtual trophy.
Will you pay me £50 a week to be your sub editor? You fookin’ need one you rum swilling fiend.
7th paragraph, it’s not uts just saying
Do we want to be in the Champions League just for the sake of it? or for financial reasons? Come on Arsenal strengthen the squad and compete with the best right at the top and we’ll be backing you all the way
giroud definately has to start, walcott is by far more effective on the wing, as is our injured pole,(in his current state) walcott could be good as stc if he gains about a kg of muscle maybe 2 ( 2-5 lb for the elders)
I agree, Theo needs to hit the weights and eat ‘clean’ and big.
Look at that midget Aguero; I don’t see him getting muscled off the ball very often.
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
Can’t help but feel an eventuality about the club. Making all the right noises at the right time, maybe these bunch of heart attack inducing gentlemen will bring a cup home soon.
Hopefully there won’t be any high profile departures this summer which will allow Wenger to bolster the squad and push on for some Silverware next season. One can but hope that this is the case – seems as though there is very little disturbance within the squad and the lads are gelling together well. Exciting times!
On another note – who should Wenger sign? What world class players are available for us to sign in the positions we need?