Walcott proves his worth for Arsenal – Is inconsistency a problem?
Determined to one day become Arsenal’s next Thierry Henry, Theo Walcott has continued his pleas to be played as a centre-forward, rather than the wing position he so regularly occupies for the Gunners. Even he, though, would have to take a minute to reflect on his wishes after yesterday’s performance down that right flank.
Despite being up against arguably the world’s best left-back in Ashley Cole, Walcott made him look weak at times, exploiting his lack of control to fly past him on numerous occasions, including in the build-up to his fourth – and most impressive – goal of the season so far. The fact that Walcott made Cole look so weary and sub-standard defensively highlighted the inimitable ability that the Englishman can sometimes have. Walcott has been praised by Messi – who admitted that he was “one of the most dangerous players I have ever played against” – and Pep Guardiola, who said that one “would need a pistol to stop him”.
However, despite performing admirably against the likes of Barcelona and at the highest level for England – such as his famous hat-trick against Croatia – he has struggled to have the same impact against the ‘lesser’ sides. For example, he made little difference when coming on as a substitute at Blackburn when Wenger would have depended on him to add zest to a frustrating afternoon for the Gunners. Similar performances were shown against Sunderland and Newcastle and it has left some Arsenal fans thinking Juventus’ wish to sign him should be granted.
Still, now that the Gunners have their first away win of the season, they have a point to prove and have something to aim for. Whether this explains the apparent lack of desire shown in the final stages of last season is unclear, but one would hope that every game is treated like a Cup Final, as this seems to be the most common trigger for Walcott’s more convincing displays.
Inconsistency may be an unwanted characteristic in any player, but it is far less problematic when their best performances come at times when the team needs it most. Walcott certainly showed that against the Blues, but will Oxlade-Chamberlain still provide much of a threat after today’s showing?
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im one of walcotts biggest fans and he frustrates the hell outa me so i can imagine why people are sceptical, truth is though he is class when in the zone and the two first half chances he put on a plate for vp and gerv where as much as you can expect from any wide player let alone that classy goal.
truth is though he is a born striker and with his speed should spend every game on the last defenders shoulder, like darren bent but with uncatchable pace imagine the damage hed cause.
theo is as good as the team makes him, to many times he recieves the ball out wide with no support, 3 or 4 men to beat, nothing in the middle to cross at and then we all berate him for not producing miricales.
play to the lads strenghts then judge how good he really is, no what i mean jelly bean??????????????
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I loved how all the team went and celebrated after the game like we had just won the champions league final
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his performance against chelsea was great.. he surprised me with some of his passes.. quality.. hope he will keep doing that..
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Firstly lets worry about the things that really matter. get rvp signed and seled then add another striker to the pack that will actually put pressure on rvp. For me the sales of chamakh bendtner vela and murphy could raise enough to land tevez. that is the calibre of striker we need with park and eventualy afobe providing the cover. we need to offload some more players. sell djourou buy cahill sell hoyte buy van der weil sell squillaci buy vertonghen. sell eastmond and denilson buy mvila sell diaby buy martin sell rosicky buy adam johnson sell arshavin buy hazard.
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We have to remember he is still very young (22) and has a good 6 years ahead of him. We expect him to do things that we would never expect any other Winger to do of his age. Walcott is a victim of his own success.
However he will have off games but that is why we have the likes of Chamberlain and Arshavin as our depth. We should sign him for the next 6 years and watch this guy along with our plethora of talented youth tear up the premier league. Also for those of us English, I believe Arsenal is best place for them to develop into world class players.
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On top of his wonderful goal, he played 2 perfect crosses that Gerninho should’ve finished, and a very good chance to RVP. If I was Arsenal Manager, there’s no way in the world I would take Walcott off.
There’s no defender in the world that can catch this guy even if they had a 5m head start.
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Walcott has the quality to play anywhere along the front three as shown against Chelsea. His crossing especially was dangerous. And I don’t know about not doing it against lesser sides, watch his games last season. He played well when he came on against Blackburn, he did OK against Sunderland and was our best player against united (not saying much, I know). Theo’s main problem is that he needs service and he needs the ball to show what he can do. It’s no coincidence that when arsenal’s midfield play well, he plays well too because he sees more of the ball. Chelsea’s ridiculously high line helped too, mind.
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Yes inconsistency is a problem but when he’s on fire we love him,time to up your game theo!
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Hello my fellow gooners, just like most of us on this site, well I’m guessing anyway are hardcore arsenal fans and have a lot of thoughts and sometimes complaints about our number 14 “Theo Walcott”". What seems to amaze me the most with Theo is the inconsistency of not skipping past full backs for fun week in, week out and what’s even more concerning is that we have great passers of the ball in our team that generally pick him out on the wing and in central positions and still we pretty much get the same results with him. I’ve not missed 1 arsenal game since he has joined the club, of course most of them live and some full replays and I honestly think I have the answer for why theo is not consistant. Firstly, Theo is with out a doubt a “CONFIDENCE” player so if the team start playing well, then he will or if he skips past the full back a few times in the first 10 minutes then it will build up his momentum through out the game, if u remember against chelsea yesterday, he skinned Ashley Cole with flicking the ball to the right of cole and then just using his raw speed and pace to run past him and unfortunately we didn’t score from that’s moment of play but could of and his confidence shot up and 5 minutes later, bish, bash, bosh he scores a screamer and maybe 1 of the best goals of his career so far. AW knows our players better than anyone in the world, he works with them all virtually every single day, something we dream about at times. So I’m thinking a lot of u were like myself and thinking Asharvin should of started instead of Theo because he is starting to hit form and deserves a shot against our rivals but boy oh boy did most of us get that wrong, I say fair play to wenger sticking with Walcott for a massive game and getting proved right in the critics eyes for doing so. In Wenger, We Trust. Bring on West Brom. Really looking forward to it.
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I think people should get off theos back,everyone says how bad and inconsistent he has been this year.I know he can be fustrating ie.getting pushed off the ball,bad crosses ect.When you watch us play theo flies down the wing gets into a great posistion looks up,and all you can see is rvp on his own if anybody at all ie.when rvp comes deep to get the ball.i think players like ramsey and gervihno need to make more runs into the box.So often we have great buildup and nobody gets on the end of it.it seems as though every time theo dosent find someone with a cross he is dubbed inconsistent when i would say 6/10 times we have nobody in the box.people need to lay off the players and encourage them,instead of putting them down evreytime they misplace a pass.Now we look to have gelled there was a marked improvement in our passing agaisnt chelsea,even from the likes of song who is normaly quite random in his passing, we barely gave the ball away at all.So let get behind the lads and stop all the negativity.c’mon arsenal.
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Is that really a question?
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yes the word is inconsistency i thought this was gonna be his season after his goal against udinese but he has gone dwn frm der and same scezny(still dont know his spelling lol ) has risen as world best wid a penalty save.Gervinho is playing 100 times better than him and more committed.In my opinion he shld be sold to a tema which suits him (Juve interested in him )he can tear apart italian defences at arsenal where the ball is played more central and not at wings similar to barca if wenger could make him a striker it would have been more better but wid Rvp Gervi its impossible .So better sell him put some money in gotze or hazard who will be more central creative players rather than wingers.Plus plz make sure Aox and Miyachi arent made wingers arsenal havent been sucessfull wid wingers Pires Ljunberg were wingers but they were 100 time more creative and could run into the boxes frm the wings >it will be waste if Aox and Miyachi are moulded into walcot moulds and made wingers Arsenal style is playin creative passing and box to box
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You’ve got the ‘Ill go missing for 90 minutes’-Walcott and you’ve got the Briljant Walcott we all love. I really hope we’ll get to see alot more of the latter one!
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I think the real reason he performed on Saturday was that Fabio was watching and he wanted to prove a point to the England boss.
He did so just do that.
I’m not a Walcott fan as he infuriates me more than he pleases me. He has a lot of raw talent but rarely uses it. The good games are too few and far between. He makes too many basic mistakes and relys too much on pace. His game will have to change in his later years.
However, on this performance I wish Fabio was watching every game.
I really admired the way he fell over, got up, quick feet and smashed the ball past Czech. Only Walcott could have reacted that fast. we need that grit and determination in all games.
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great,superb and morale boosting,al d players had a 1daful game especially our HERO RVP,Kudos 2 al of them.GUNNER TIL 2MOROW,EVEN 4EVA.LONG LIVE AFC WITH TROUPHIES.
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he should be on the bench, 8/10 times he will fail to impress, he should quit whining about playing through the middle park has dibs on that spot and concentrate on his game in the wide areas. maybe play him in centre against some rubbish team and see how he does i bet yous he will be worst than he is on the right. first touch positioning awareness football brain are the rquirements to play through the middle and they are also everything hes bad at.
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