Theo Walcott says there’s more to come from Alexis Sanchez after the Chilean burst into life yesterday with a hat-trick against Leicester.
Having gone 7 games without a goal it was a welcome return to form as the Gunners picked up three points against Claudio Ranieri’s side, and Walcott is sure that the floodgates have now opened for last season’s top scorer.
“He is a top-quality player,” he said “and even when he is not scoring goals he works so hard for us. He tracks back and does a lot for the team. I am sure he going to flourish now with many, many more important goals.
“It has been a long time coming, he knows that himself. But he is very pleased today.”
Walcott himself drew praise from Arsene Wenger for his performance up front, marked with another goal, and he says he’s happy to be given more opportunities as the leading man.
“I have always said I want to play up front,” he said. “When I get the opportunity I can improve and learn the position a little more.
“The manager has had faith in me and I just want to repay him.”
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For more on Walcott and the game, read today’s Arseblog:
I’m going to be honest and say theo showed some intelligent movement and occasionally good strength and had a very promising performance. In
This game was totally made for Theo.
Leicester have the leakiest defence in the league, play a high line and admirably play gung-ho attacking football regardless of the opposition.
He must wish all teams emulated Leicester.
When Theo and Alexis finally find bond and work on same frequency it’s gonna be solid, their combination upfront for us will be more than deadly. With the all-seeing Ozz behind them and Saint Santi pulling the strings deep..our Coq is a rock..any other Coq sucks…please blogs..any news on Rosicky, we miss the little Mozart.. COYG onward and upward
Theo has got to do it against the big boys…a bit like the whole team really!
Roll on Sunday!
Yes, but I remember theo in last couple of years scoring against the big boys especially chelsea he scored against man.utd away and home he scored against city he scored against liverpool, so when he is on form and the team is on form he has not a giroud problem scoring against big boys and missing chances if he has a chance he will score which I truly expect him to score against man.utd next weekend.
You mean like City(two goals away from home), Liverpool (regularly)…man utd (occasionally) and Chelsea (more than anyone else in the team)….All from the wing? Oh ok
Figure it out, mate, in the last two years he’s scored against ALL of the big boys.
Gives the midfield a lot of space whilst defenders try and follow him, brilliant! I feel Ozil and Cazorla can finally work some magic with lovely runs being made.
That’s why I loved the first goal. Özil actually showed strength to get away from his marker and start an attack while Santi got up field to finish the move. The fluidity in our team is second to none.
yes it was like reverse role ozil starting the attack from our half and cazorla was in ozil position in attacking half I really like the goal because ozil started the attack with holding the ball bringing Leicester players to close him down and made the space for counter to alexis first with a pass.
did you guys see theo’s hold up play! Wow!
Its clear that Theo has been hard at work in learning the trade of that striker role (I suggest viewing a certain Thierry Henry’s clips). All that’s really left is to allow him to continue getting match experience in that position. Credit to Wenger who has shown faith in him when most of us had our doubts.
And Alexis Sanchez…nuff said!
Just need anoder pacy tricky winger to.compliment Sanchez and Walcott .can Chambo be the man with some “calor” .would love to see a trio of blitz and skill .
We have, Winger/Striker, he’s injured… Welbeck!
I really miss welbz, I’m sure he would play ahead of reamsey on the right wing because he can defend even better than ramsey and what a front 3 that would be full with pace, alexis, walcott, wlebeck. I really regret that he is injured he is very important player when we play away.
Welbeck has his work cut out for him when he comes back. He’s a hybrid of Giroud and walcott, but a piss poor finisher. I think he’s closer to being henry than theo.
Neither of them are anywhere near close enough to Henry to warrant a genuine comparison
Well done to Theo as well.
Proving some doubters wrong.
Injury free run now please.
Thank you Theo for explaining the bleeding obvious every time you speak to the media. Good goal though
Now to show the devils how angels play.
Hope he will lead us to Premier League Title and Champions League glory and retire at Arsenal.
Chelski 15th, Maureen obsessed with Wenger, it’s just not funny enough! :-))
Theo has 12 goals in 13 starts, you really can’t argue with his stats. If fit, I have no doubt he will get 25 goals in all competitions
This stat keeps cropping up today, but does anyone know when that run started? Sometime in 2013, possibly? Is that really relevant to his current form? And how many goals has Walcott scored in how many minutes as a substitute in that time?
I’m not saying he didn’t play well yesterday, but I think this is a pretty pointless stat.
I did some digging in case anyone else is interested in my questions. Since the beginning of the 13/14 season, Walcott has started 17 PL games, been subbed on in 16, and scored 12 goals in those games. So if he got those 12 goals in his last 13 starts, that means that before that he didn’t score for (at least) four starts in a row, and that he didn’t score in any of the 16 subs appearances he made in the league over the last two seasons. Or in other words: Walcott has scored 12 goals in his last… Read more »
So what your saying is, he’s still scored more than Diego Costa, Harry “mouth like a” canine and wayne Rooney in the same number of games….
…Despite being disrupted and recovering match fitness and ‘automatisms’ repeatedly. Imagine no injury disruptions. We would be having very different discussions about Theo.
I guess, from that, we can conclude that Theo is not really an impact player from the bench. Giroud, on the other hand, is. He seems to score quite regularly coming on from the bench. It’s a shame for Giroud that he’s not been putting away more chances when starting because his workrate is exceptional and his defensive qualities have always been really important. However, now we have Coq, Alexis, Ramsey and Ox to take up a lot of the slack we can afford luxuries like Walcott a little more. I was expecting to see Ox really push on this… Read more »
“luxuries like Walcott”………..thumbed you down for ignorance
Was that season Rambo had two years back a one off? I’d love to see him get back to that form in the centre. A bit like Theo will need a run of games, could we do it with Aaron instead of Santi? Trouble is we all love Santi. Such a brain burn…
Its hard to argue that Theo is an awesome player .
Then again, we have Giroud.
I think no matter who plays that position, its good to be an Arsenal fan.
Hopefully we can capitalise on this win and go on a 10 game run We are just off the top which is good to be in, we do not want to peak too early. All those doom mongers (MEDIA) who said we needed a “World Class striker” bc we can’t score goals. Or that our season was effectively over after 3 matches! Someone should remind them Alexis is back. Giroud scored even with restricted minutes on and Walcott is looking tough, technical on the ball. Where City now? These media numpties are strangely quiet or reversing their tune. The same… Read more »
lmao, you are the incarnation of Captain Hindsight.
My opinion of Theo up top changed when I saw him put his back into Huth’s chest, (With the ball too!), and actually showed decent hold up play.
Theo has balls now!
The more you look at it the more it starts to make sense playing Theo up front. He has that unshakeable self confidence and is also someone who works best when doing things instinctively. He’s not an all rounder, he’s more someone who works in moments. His finishing has always been very good and the more he plays the sharper his movement will be. I was skeptical about Theo playing as a striker mainly due to him not being the strongest or most technical of players when opponents sit deep but he is intelligent and the more regularly he is… Read more »
Theo had a fabulous game and showed signs of things I, personally speaking, didn’t think he had – namely, strength, timing of runs and hold-up play. But I should point out that Leicester played naively into our hands! After the first two Arsenal goals, and sensible tactician would have got his defensive line much deeper (to stop the use of Theo’s blistering pace.) Don’t get me wrong, great performance, fantastic result, etc, etc – but one swallow don’t make a summer! Let’s tear Manure a new one one, and then we can start to be optimistic!
Why does Theo always have to ‘repay ‘ the manager… I would prefer the manager owes him