Theo Walcott was efficient and influential against Hull, according to Arsene Wenger, and also brought some attacking balance to the team.
With Alexis Sanchez deployed as a striker, Arsenal need an outlet when the Chilean drops deep and that’s what Walcott provides in the view of the manager.
He scored his second goal of the season to put the Gunners 2-0 up, and the Frenchman was glad to see his faith in the 27 year old repaid.
“He’s getting slowly there,” he said. “He is not completely ready physically but today I felt in the second half he was much better than the first. He has interesting qualities for us.
“He goes behind, many players like to come to the ball and he’s one of the players who is very dangerous for the quality of his runs and his receptions. I think today in the first half he was influential on the ball. He scored one as well, so he’s efficient and that’s what you want.”
Asked about Walcott’s selection, he said, “I look at the overall balance of the team. As I told you, we need players who go behind the defenders and he can do that well. When Sanchez plays up front, he likes to come to the ball.
“To have someone who goes behind at the same moment helps us to have many options.”
Fans need to stop abusing of him. He’s been doing what he is supposed to do, so far this year.
I think the criticism has reduced this season in light of his performances
I ‘down-arrowed’ your comment because I was at the Southampton game and as soon as he touched the ball, the season ticket holder behind me (generally a nice guy) was shouting words of discontent at him throughout the game.
any cunt with money can be a season ticket holder I suppose
*any x**t with or without money can be an Arsenal fan. The vitriol here sometimes has nothing to do with having money.
Yep, I’m one.
Spot on Fergal, there was a selection people on here last week I think it was that somehow turned criticism of Oxlade-Chamberlain round to an all out bash on Walcott.
And WengaBoys – true and sadly there’s no cure for being a cunt.
With his performance last season I don’t think anyone can be blamed for wanting to see the back of him. Then the surprise/disappointment of him staying while Joel Campbell gets sent elsewhere. However, if he plays well then by all means, go Theo go! Long may it continue!
Yeh I reckon they can, he had injury after injury and then even when he was playing well he was dropped for Giroud. Now that turned out to be a not too bad gamble but like anybody that has followed Walcott’s career or even listened to Wenger occasionally you should know that Walcott is confidence driven and unfortunately his is quite fragile. So now, I ask you, if you were a shrinking violet that was performing as a violet particularly well and your confidence was shaken by the head Violet’s often insane selection choices and your stem was quite often… Read more »
The shrinking violet who negotiated himself to almost as much money as Özil and Sanchez. While the team is injury plagued in general and players go through difficult spells, without wanting to be too English about it, off the back of such money you better put in a fucking performance.
Keep up the good work, in the next contract saga AW would be pleased to give you £180k per week.
‘Fans’ who abuse him are so insignificant despite all their efforts to be noticed. Arsenal are a global brand and they represent less than 0.05% and only in North London. Half of those are spuds fan infiltrators, some are in this forum. The board doesn’t even know they exist if not because of the heckling at the train station, the banners and other childish boos. But that’s the limit because if the go further they will get a ban for life. This is not about how the team performs or the result. Just kids throwing their toys off the pram.
I think you might be suffering of paranoid delusions
COYS!!!!
I meant COYG!!!
No mate. You see, we all joined this forum to convers with fellow gooners. Not as a platform to insult each other. Last year for instance it got so bad with Coq references, insults and negativity that I thought that’s it! It’s now full of kids, I’m off! I deleted the app and stayed away for several months. I’m now back again, no Coq reference but still negativity, insults. Well I guess I was wrong to be back
And referring to fans who think Walcott was shit enough last season to question his place in the squad as abusive and “spuds fan infiltrators” is so positive.
Does my name, in reference to Arsenal’s ‘Coq’, offend you?
Dear Mr. Antispuds Please try to weed out the haters and the loosers. Far too many well spoken true fans in this Forum to give in to trolls and other stupid people. And good criticism is sometimes hard to digest but the management and the team isn´t perfect (damn close though)
What’s wrong with negativity when it’s due? Being a supporter doesn’t mean you are sheep that can’t have a reasoned opinion on things. If reading negative comments makes you want to go stay away from the forum you clearly don’t want to converse but you just want everyone to endorse your opinion.
A spuddie lad I worked with a couple of years back was proud to tell me he came on here trolling. I never worked out what name he used but he knew exactly what was being said by the negative boys like fat gooner and voldermort.
yes fergral imagine arsenal fan saying this : “There is an entrenched narrative with Coquelin and the fraud Mezut Ozil and its consistent re-echoching is making it appear like informed reason.With Coquelin its going against the tide of basic common sense and trying to create the impression that he should be benched because he is having bad games even though he is beasting games and together with El nenny still remains the best defensive mid at the club.In Ozil case i am simply perplexed as to how the adoration from what i can only adduce to the sheepish ignorant but… Read more »
This armed robber Ozil is stealing a living at Arsenal yet even though his one of the highest players at the club no one seems to reference his shocking performance since he came to the club English pundits who classed him a failure after his first three seasons at the club now seem to have adopted the stance that “if the ignorant Arsenal fan-base can tolerate him and a vocal minority idolise him because he c ame from Madrid he cant be that bad”…..My god this is a club whose large sections of its fans despised and booed Alex Hleb… Read more »
Ozil doesn’t have a great game every time out, but he’s one of our best performers over the season. Those 19 assists last season mean something. He’s playing better defense these days, though he and Walcott (and Iwobi and Ox for that matter) can definitely improve. He’s got a higher work rate than he’s given credit for. Theo is a natural winger. He’s poor at holding the ball up or competing in aerial duels, so he’s never going to be an effective lone striker. He’s not playing as well as his salary indicates he should, so this is his last… Read more »
We all know that Özil is nicking a living because the great thinker and football genius Michael Owen said so. Or was it the annoying one of those Manc brothers? The one who did so well as a manager in La Liga they terminated his contract before the season was over. Doesn’t matter because we know Özil aint shit compared to Sterling, Alli, Cleverly, Barkley, Dier, Downing…you name them. All of them better than Özil.
A fit and grown up Theo is an asset to the team. I thought he was getting there when he was carried off against 2-0 Sp*rs. Never the most skilful hut has other good qualities. Would be great to see him bloom.
WWII prisoner camp commandant: “I have good news and bad news …. “we are going to change underwear for ze first time in two years. ”ze bad news …. *Hut one will change with hut two, hut three change with hut four ….”
I’ll get my leather coat … oldie *hut not a goodie.
Needs to calm down a bit about launching crosses into the box especially when Giroud is not playing.
I think a couple of his crosses that looked bad were actually excellent, but no one made a run. Theo has serious shortcomings–he miscontrols a pass he receives far more often than an elite player should–and terrific qualities. Let’s try not to confuse the two.
Yes but you’d think he’d realise no one is making runs by the 5th cross.
He often had that problem with RvP. TW would put the cross on the near or far post where a striker would normally be but RvP had stopped his run and waited on the penalty spot. Annoying for TW the first few times, but annoying for everyone else after that…
I have been Theo’s biggest critic but lately he has turned it around.
Fair play to him I hope he keeps it up.
I like theo when he is playing for his contract.
Three month rolling contracts, forever?
Fair play for that mate, makes a refreshing change from the !?*&# who can’t let a bad spell go!
Wow! A voice of reason! I wasn’t expecting that!
Off topic but does 3 straight losses make Maureen a “specialist in failure”? Hehehehe..:-)
not sure paul, but 14 losses from 32 games for him does suggest it, he has w13 d5 l14 of his last 32 games, and it really is fun to watch. Not sure why utd don’t just do away with the middle man and hire Mino Raiola as their manager.
Look at the history of the game. There are a lot of great manager who had lost their mojo. I wouldn’t be surprised if man utd head for a train wreck this season. Nevertheless I still admire his work at Porto. But yes, he is still a cunt.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that Mourinho has now lost three competitive games in a row for the first time in a decade. That game wasn’t really competitive.
Man U with their billions of pounds team vs a Watford rag tag squad handing an arse belonging to Man U back to Man U.
Beautiful!
AND Mourinho’s a cunt!
Waiting for another 7 minute rant in front of the cameras! Now, won’t that be delightful?
It’ll be interesting which player he’s verbally assassinating in their dressing room.
Will it make or break their squad harmony?
I think i like you… A lot sirr!!
For all the hype, the new manager and the stupid amounts of money they spent United only look marginally less shit than last season. This has happened about three years in a row now, which is quite amusing.
City are looking a lot more ominous, although they’ve yet to really play anybody good. Their fixtures in October and December look tough.
Makes you think how incredible Ferguson’s influence must have been!
In his last year, Ferguson was probably worth an extra 15 points to that dreadful team. They would never have won that title without him.
If manure want to play in Europe next season they better sack that annoying cunt now. See where he left chelsky? Not even Europa league
It’s happenin again,
It’s happenin again
Mourinho
It’s happenin again.
LVG will be the golden era soon 🙂
I’m so sorry but apart from the goal, I thought his touch was dreadful, he lost the ball on multiple occasions and disappeared for large portions of the game.
They’re talking about yesterday’s match against Hull, not one from a few years ago. Hope this helps!
You have a proper fucking balloon’s name though so your opinion probably counts for less than mine and FatGooner’s.
(1) His first touch was bad a couple of times, as it always will be. (2) He played many incisive passes into the middle, brought Bellerin in, tracked back well, and was a constant threat with his runs off the ball (just like Wenger said). (3) He scored a goal. (4) His shot led to another goal. I just watched Rashford have a terrible game, that fits your description of what Theo did–and score a goal. I don’t think United supporters will choose him as their target, despite their embarrassing display at Watford. Yet, even when we win, an important… Read more »
I thought we were poor in general yesterday. Hull were just awful, allowing us to pretty much play our game and played over 45 mins with 10 men but we still let them back in and could’ve seriously embarrassed ourselves. Walcott and Sanchez, despite both scoring, were really poor. If they’d scored a late equaliser, you’d be agreeing.
But they didn’t so we’re disagreeing. I think you’re overexaggerating and playing against 10-men is harder than it looks.
He is exaggerating (no need for the “over” in that sentence, mate), but that doesn’t mean he’s not making some valid points, and I think people are exaggerating in the other direction when they talk about how well Theo is playing. We can appreciate how hard Theo has been working lately, and that he brings something different to the team, while still finding his shortcomings extremely frustrating at the best of times and wishing we had someone with greater overall quality to start on our right wing. The two views aren’t mutually exclusive (except in the minds of most Arsenal… Read more »
Sanchez is being played out of position. It shows. When we have a proper CF in there and Alexis can do his usual thing from wide left, he’s more effective. Plus, he tracks back more energetically than any midfielder except Coquelin. You know Monreal must groan when he sees that anyone else is going to play in front of him.
For what it’s worth, MB, I think your name is funny.
There’s always one… 😀
Honestly, are people so fickle to forget the majority of the time when he plays he fails at even the simplest of things. I have had people try to back him with stats but though he has good stats with assists etc over his Arsenal career, people are quick to forget that all the goals , assists etc always come heavily in blocks and never over any sustained period. It is this point that fuels mine and many others anger about him. No doubt the talent is there but imagine how great he could have been if he had worked… Read more »
‘worked a little harder’ is a nebulous concept, about which as regards to Walcott you have little to no insight. There’s nothing to suggest that Walcott hasn’t worked really quite hard throughout his career. I do remember reading something about him staying after training working on his finishing or crossing a few years ago, which is a small example granted but indicative of someone who has worked pretty hard, I think it’s fair to say – to say nothing of the fact that he’s represented champions league club on a fairly regular basis for 10 years, which requires no little… Read more »
Being great in training is not what im on about. On the pitch its often been noticeable at his time at the club where he gets lost and switches off. Thats what im talking about. That is ‘quantifiable’. When some of our greats from the past who had half his talent tried hard on the pitch which took them from good to great can do it. Why cant he? Also some perspective is needed here. Some of the players who were at the club these last 10 years or at least during the times we have cut our cloth, would… Read more »
AusGunner if I could upvote your comment a 1000 times I would. Hit the nail on its head! This comes up a lot when people talk about Jack Wilshere and it’s nauseating to hear people suggest that, because he gets pictured going out, he hasn’t “worked hard enough”.
A little of consistency from all the players would make for some interesting score lines. 10-0 against Spurs Chelsea and Man U/City anyone? Achieving that in this “3rd gear”/ “3 goals a game” “rut” we’re in would be lovely to witness as well.
Personally wouldn’t have given Him another chance, but Wenger seems to be doing that so won’t complain if he takes it. There’s a great player I there somewhere.
Anyone notice he’s stopped talking this year?
Happy sad mourinho day!
And many happy returns!
Is Walcott world class? Is he or Sanchez a striker? No no no, not by any means. But you don’t need a world class player to win games and leagues #Leicester. Now that he is focused on working solely as winger, I think we can see he has put his head down and is focused. It seems like he’s working hard to improve his game and performances. And the result of that can slowly but surely be seen on the pitch. Now, we may have our issues with him in the past etc. But with his attitude and work ethics… Read more »
Or would you rather pay £90 million and lose to Watford?
Or push Martial, a player who clearly plays above his age and has immense talent, onto the wing so he can have another season of wastage of talent
There are people who would say yes to that question. Using statements like at least by spending 90 million we gave it our all.
Which would be ridicilous.
I agree but to be fair, most big signings take a season to hit form. Because Pogba was going back there, they didn’t think fit in, but they’re wrong.
However he could turn out to be excellent next season (hopefully after the ‘special needs one’ has gone).
*they didn’t think he’d need it…
True true, let’s laugh at them in the meantime ?
Fair point 😀
Laugh and laugh hard.
Not saying Pogba is a bad player. But its funny to see how people get so excited over the price rather than the actual performances. I think Granit has arguably shown more promise as a new player in the league than Pogba on his return. He hasn’t even done so much more than Elneny, who has only played a fraction of the time, and cost 1/20th of the price.
Fair fucks to Theo. He’s getting his head down and starting to look like he may be able contribute this season.
Interesting that we went 2 up top for the last 15 minutes of the Hull game. Alexis and Theo seem to work well together.
Wonder if we might see that combo in the Chelsea game.
Or Alexis and Lucas at some point maybe
Theo theo theo! Another goal (winning) against Chelsea that will do me,thanks very much.
I don’t think people should be jeering Walcott. This is absolutely boorish and symptomatic of the thinking that has pervaded on players like Per, Giroud, Flamini and now Ox. OTOH, I don’t think Walcott was anywhere near efficient. He missed a whole string of balls in terms of control and mispassed a significant number. Granted he was influential for the goals, he was also largely ineffective for large chunks and counter productive handing the ball insipidly back to the opposition which put us back under the pressure. This is potentially very damaging when we work so hard to retain possession… Read more »
It appears that Theo is working his ass off trying to make the best of his talents. If he can do better defensively he has some real value. Unfortunately his “game”, being an offensive threat behind their lines, this is a ” game” that shows errors for all to see. I rate Theo a strong 7-8 on the wing at his almost best. I cringe at his touches…I relish his attacks…I appreciate his willingness and desire to score and I love when it works…both for him and the team. Keep up the hard work Theo!
The nice things about the squad at the moment is that, if this run of relatively form deserts him (a not unprecedented event) we have genuine options – with Iwobi playing so well, Sanchez and Perez available across all three positions, and Giroud available in the centre, we can replace him if necessary. And that’s not counting Welbeck or Ox.
His runs but as well as his newly found backtracking abilities have had a very positive impact on Arsenal…on another note, I know all games are different, but funny how united struggled against watford and we did comparatively well. When put into perspective, the beginning of the season wasn’t that bad when you think about our opposition.
Missing out on the Euros seems to have done him good.
I thought Theo was quite wasteful yesterday but he did score and he does pose a problem (For the opposition) with his pace. There have been a couple of times in his career where he started knocking goals in regularly and both instances were ended by serious injury. As inept as he may often appear, Walcott tends to produce in big games. ..Theo, the riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma (Respek Winston).
Theo has shown some promising qualities this season. I still believe he has to do well consistently.
More important, Mourinho is a cunt. Not only that, a cunt managing a losing side.
It was the referee’s fault
The dog ate his team.
Tbh I wanted him out of the club when the transfer window started last year was that bad.He’s had a few good games in a row now which was unheard of last season so happy he’s proving me wrong and hopefully e can reach the potential we all hoped he had!
I’m happy with the way the season is shaping up but we still need a bit more in our game.
I’m afraid, for me, Walcott is a false dawn. Looking back over the last decade, he has produced decent runs as well as some wonderful and memorable moments. But he isn’t about to go up a level in product or consistency.
He’s just not the awful player he was last season
Theo need to deliver world class player football because he is on world class player wages. Lets hope he can show us this season why it is exactly that he is one of the best paid players in the league.
It’s too bad Arsenal didn’t spent as much on transfers as Man U and let Pogba slip through its fingers. Another sign Wenger is losing it.
Exactly! The fact that Wenger isn’t prepared to blow the majority of the transfer budget on Pogba proves he’s not committed to winning.
needs to do more and be consistent for the whole season to justify his wages