Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck, fresh from hammering home the five goals that sent Southampton out of the FA Cup were obviously in fine fettle at full time.
Here’s what they had to say when they faced the BT Sport cameras … and here’s the match report with the goal clips.
On an important win and ‘emphatic’ performance…
TW: We know how hard it’s been when we’ve come to Southampton. They are our bogey side to be honest. From the word go we were ready. We’ve made some poor starts lately but we came out of the blocks running and this man next to me [Welbeck] is back with an absolute bang. It’s great to see him back on the pitch. Again it’s a clean sheet which we always aim for in any game. It’s nice that we created a lot of chances and tucked them away today.
On scoring against his old club…
TW: It’s not payback, its been so long now. I’ve had some great memories here and Southampton will always be in my heart, without a doubt. I enjoyed playing football here at the time and obviously I enjoyed tonight. Southampton are a strong team, they’re obviously doing well as a cup team – I’ll be cheering them on in the [EFL Cup] final. And they’re obviously solid in the league.
Going back to us, a lot of changes were made by the manager today. Obviously, there’s been a lot going on behind closed doors but us players we’ve done the talking on the pitch.
On scoring on his first start back…
DW: It was obviously good to be back out on the pitch after such a long time. It’s been a horrible few months and obviously with the injury before. It was great to be back out there scoring goals and doing what I love doing.
On coming back from injury…
DW: I think because I’d had the experience before coming back from injury, you kind of know what to expect, even though it’s tough times. The end game is to be back out on the pitch and playing in the first team; I got that opportunity today and I’m looking forward to doing it many more times.
On Wenger not being on the touchline…
TW: We’re on the pitch and we just try to do out job. It’s important for the manager to be there but he’s in the dressing room before the game telling us what to do and at half time. We know our jobs, we’ve been in the game so long and we’ve got lots of experience in the team so we know what to do. We wanted to get the win today and we did that.
First away win against them for a while. I know their team wasn’t great but ours was.
Well played Welb2 and Three-o!
Also we have lots of attacking options with most of them fresh (Giroud, Perez, Welbz and Theo) plus the Duracell bunny so we should have no excuse for not giving it our best for the rest of the season.
Looks like we have depth everywhere, especially once Xhaka and Elneny are back.
Exciting times!
a danny duo and a theo trio
appy dayz
Absolutely class performance yesterday, winning 5 nil away from home is not to be sniffed at. I do think a bit of perspective is needed considering Southampton did make 10 changes to the side that won away at Liverpool midweek, but still, we’re into the next round, and I’d fucking love a cup final day out at Wembley
since 2001 we’ve bin ter wembley about 8 times
getting fed up wiv the fukin place.
Ha Ha!
Great performance by the lads! Buzzing 🙂
With Oxlade-Adélaïde, Maitland-Chamberlain & Reine-Niles we really outnumbered them in midfield. Too much talent and technic for the bogeys
I know our critics (pundits) will try and play this down as usual….its only southampton’s second team (they made 10 changes to their 1st team), but guess what?….we also made 10 changes too, diffference is squad depth!
And the 2nd string of the most exciting team ever in history with the best manager in the world and who absolutely are favourites the title despite being in 4th lost at home to a lower league side today ???
We even had a stand in manager
!
Theo really should consider going into politics after football…the mans media trained to perfection
Sure, I see heaps of Hillary Clinton-like establishment candidate potential. Which in this day and age means he’ll probably lose an election to Joey Barton.
To quote Theo *obviously* 😉
I don’t care about Britain’s Got Talent or American Idol judges, but when Wenger gives you a standing ovation for your goal, now that’s something!
great game gunnerz so delighted to see welbz scoring again he really look sharp
Jay Lo giving me a standing ovation would me a lot more to me. I like Arsene and all that but…
How good was Lucas’ assist for that 1st goal? Most underrated player we have
Two really nice passes to assist the assister as well (3rd and 5th goals
Obviously
Wow…Reine-Adelaide just blows me away with his moves and passes. This guy will take the throne when Özil decides he’s done enough.
Why does Theo keep mentioning what’s “going on behind closed doors”? Is that a throwaway line or does he have an angle?
I absolutely loved Perez today. Was really impressive for us again. Surely deserves to start more matches for us. Let’s just hope we keep this up till the end of the season.
Can I just take the time to say that Wenger keeps playing kids out of position here and there and this has been reflected through the academy with attacking players allowed the freedom to roam plus their positions being switched routinely. This has culminated in the performance of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and even more so that of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Not only did the Ox look like a different creature, he clearly has the skillset to play in CM. Wenger has said it a lot of times that that’s where he sees his future and all of us just ignore it because… Read more »
Was disappointed he couldn’t apply the finish when he was in space with just the goalie to beat. Really wanted a Perez goal. Experienced player, he always contributes positively on the pitch. Lovely signing
Yeah obviously you know at the end of the day it’s always great to get on the score sheet and uh obviously you know I was uh able to do that three times today and you know obviously the uh manager has had a word at half time and you know we’ve obviously come out and uh got the three points and uh obviously at the end of the day that’s the most important thing at the end of the day.
Wenger gets huge credit for winning the game even before the ball was kicked. He convinced old Zoolander that he had the really really good looking young squad in all the land. They make 10 changes. We follow suit but we have better players. Also kudos to Wenger for dictating the game from above in the posh seats. Sent on Alexis and Iwobi to match their subs. No nonsense. The youngsters being brought through by the gaffer have been excellent. All 3 double barrel shotguns in midfield MaitlandNiles, ReineAdelaide and OXChambo blew them away. But lets not forget Bellerin and… Read more »
Important not to get too carried away.
Now you’ll see the same trite voices saying we have to start Maitland Niles or we have to play the same front 3.
Doesnt’ work like that. Soton is its own special circumstances.
But what we do have is plenty of excellent options.
The best thing is we have some players who can help carry the load in midfield because we are bereft of Santi, Iwobi, Granit.