Danny Welbeck says he’s staked his claim for a regular place in Arsene Wenger’s starting XI after his second brace in four appearances helped Arsenal to a 3-2 win over Southampton on Sunday.
In the absence of Alexandre Lacazette, until recently sidelined with injury, and Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang, cup-tied in the Europa League, the England international has featured both as a central striker and as a useful foil on the left wing.
While he’s not a natural finisher – as evidenced by a bad miss against the Saints – he’s hoping to continue his scoring run for the Gunners as the season reaches its climax, especially with teammate Henrikh Mkhitaryan likely to miss the next few weeks due to a knee injury.
“We all wish him [Mkhitaryan] a speedy recovery,” he told the Evening Standard.
“Hopefully he is available as soon as possible but it is the manager’s decision who he wants in the team.
“Obviously, with the goals yesterday I’ve staked my claim. It was decent to get a couple of goals and the assist. The miss, it isn’t like I wanted to miss. I just couldn’t stretch enough to get there.
“You just have to know there is going to be another opportunity and you have to keep focused. I’ve been through much tougher stuff than that.”
He added: “As you’ve seen, I can play with Pierre and with Laca. It is nice. It gives you that added motivation. The competition is there so you are going to improve and better yourself.
“I’ve had that [criticism] throughout my career. There are always going to be critics. You see people are criticising Cristiano Ronaldo and he’s at the pinnacle. Every day, you can do something good and people will have something bad to say about you. You just get on with it.”
Good lad. We’ll need him to step up, so anything that can build his confidence now (and Iwobi’s) is a good thing.
Wonderful phrasing.
How many articles on Welbeck and Nelson do you want to publish?
What a bout a mention on Granit and the excellent Iwobi.
The void needs to be filled by frankly Ramsey, Ozil and potentially Iwobi.
BUT Welbeck is an option to Lacazette’s better control as a pacy counter strike on the break.
Welbeck is pacier than Laca. He has the power too. I think we can just change up the personnel as per the opposition weakness in defence. So big strong centrebacks, we use Laca to build up the play and use Welbeck and Auba pace on the flanks to get in behind the full backs. Either through power and oace or trickery and pace
Good attitude. Let’s hope he steps up, finally.
And finally puts himself in the shop window. Hopefully
I really do love this guy so much.
Just keep it up Danny. You have a lot of people that need convincing about your talent. Good luck.
What a champ.
Humble and hardworking Welbz. So much to like about him.
He will have competition from Iwobi who was also superb. 2 assist and the creative play he put in led to Aubameyang’s goal. I say he can give us something out wide bc we lack genuine wingers but Iwobi also took up central position against Soton and made things happen. If you want to hear some sensible commentary, you should sign in to Arsenal.com and hear Adrain Clarke on the breakdown. The other stat you are less than likely to see from the likes of some would be Granit. He made 125 passes more than anyone-else, 93 of which were… Read more »
Age is just a number or haven’t you heard…?
I guess they are inspired by Rome’s effort Tuesday night. I can almost hear their coach: – Look at Rome, it is actually possible!
Good luck to him.
The miss, it isn’t like I wanted to miss. I just couldn’t stretch enough to get there.
So you’ve been wanting to miss on some other occasion huh danny boy ?
U can be a journalism there. .good in misinterpreting and controversial. Will earn u a lot of clicks..or thumbs down i supposed
Erm, I’m pretty sure it was a joke, hence the winky emoticon.
Maybe he’s finally getting some confidence back. Flashes of quality has been the norm for so long. Getting some starts bc Auba’s benched for EL has definitely helped. He has size, strength and agility, and being hard to defend he helps our attack pretty easily like a center in basketball setting picks for point guards. To see him make consistent goals and assists, like the fantastic one for Auba yesterday is pretty great. And AW’s background comments have changed my opinion of this guy quite a bit, knowing more about his history of injuries etc. Inspiring.
Playing them at the start in different positions together allows the team to understand their respective qualities in those positions. This is good. As in the future they can interchange positions and make space for Rambo and Ozil and the overlapping full backs for an overload. This is only possible if everyone else in the team knows what to do when they have the ball, look up and see a player with different quality making a run with Monreal or Bellerin on the overlapping.
The team is setup for open attacking play, but majority of teams park the bus and block passing or shooting lanes in central areas. The wide areas are the key. Good to have a solid option in Danny and also have different players like Auba and Iwobi
Iwobi/Lacazette/Wilshere would be better replacements on the left wing.
Not Wilshere. He’s been below average last couple of games. Delays the pass too much, takes the wrong option and gives the ball away quite a bit.