I was impressed with his pressing yesterday, him winning the ball back actually led to Ozil’s goal but he really did put in a shift.
I have to say though, the players have to be on a top4 bonus. When top4 is in danger they all of a sudden put in a shift.
Because he goes through large spells of being useless or invisible. As a squad option he’s a perfectly acceptable option but his 10 years at Arsenal have by and large been a really mixed bag and he’s never really lived up to the early potential. Much of the criticism aimed in his direction has been perfectly justified.
I’m glad you have something to hold on to mate, with Wenger’s -obvious- fall from grace it’s important at desperate times like this to keep busy and keep making sure you harp on about something idiotic.
Any statistics around how many of those goals have been match winning or match defining? That would be interesting because I remember, a few years back, there was a stat that showed that most of his goals came in games where we drubbed the opposition by a few goals.
The goal he scored against West Ham was match defining in some ways because it secured the game for us, boosted our confidence and basically killed any chances of West Ham mounting a fight back.
As for unthankful Arsenal fans, let’s be fair, he is a very limited player, even on his best day. I really don’t think we would have missed him had he not played for us these last 10 years. I can only remember one season when he was on fire, scoring regularly, before he got injured, where we missed him. Otherwise, he has largely been a passenger in our seasons, not doing near enough to influence our results.
Has he played since making those dumb comments?? 
I don’t think he really has a role in the 3-4-3. The players behind the striker have to be creative players who can operate between the lines and make things happen with the ball at their feet. The CF needs to be a pretty good holdup player who can combine with others. And he obviously isnt a wing back.
Playing much better without him. It’s like having an extra man on the pitch and Ox is doing the job of two people better than one.
Aren’t there chinese team ready to buy him for a rain of money? Please…
Would be great if he never plays for us again.
Average player who just has pace.
Surely West Ham would want him. More his level
Walcott is a weird one. Barely anyone seems to truly rate him and want him in the starting line up but he has scored 19 goals for us and is comfortably our second highest scorer this season.
It’s all well and good wanting him out, which is a position I have found myself in, but his goals will need replacing.
With this new formation I just can’t see him getting the same number of goals/starts next season if he stays. 19 goals is a lot but a dynamic striker in-front of Ozil and Alexis should be able to more than make up for that without jeopardizing the rest of our overall game the way both Giroud and Theo so consistently do.
I never count all comps for various reasons. League goals are a better measure in my eyes, of which he has 10.
That’s only one less than Giroud who has played half of Theo’s game time, has fewer shots on goal per game and has one more assist. Giroud is also ahead in terms of key passes and chances created per 90 mins metric too. Stats indicate if you rotate Giroud properly he’ll get you goals.
Walcott is a poacher, we know he’ll get goals, the issue is whether we need those goals at the expense of other important things like pressing, build up and defensive stability down the right. There are plenty of talents out there who can offer what Theo does and more who we can build a much more functional team with
Ugh, Ronaldo fanboys…
That’s all good I’m sure when we sign Mbappe in the summer he will fill the void of Theo’s goals.
This is what it comes down to, if there’s someone who offers the goals he offers plus more I’m totally fine with it. More than fine with it, I’d be an advocate. Your knowledge of the talents available to replace him is probably greater than mine so maybe that’s why you’d be more confident of us replacing him easily.
I guess I’m more reluctant than I might have been last summer for instance because we’re probably losing Alexis. Whatever way you slice it, 43 goals is a lot to replace.
Jermaine Defoe and Darren Bent score goals but no Arsenal fan ever wanted them.
Theo’s JOB is to score goals. Wenger picks him tactically to do that. It’s not like when he plays instead of Oxlade he’s better in every single way and therefore returns more goals doing the exact same things, when he plays instead of Oxlade he makes more runs into the box with less defensive running. He makes more off the ball runs because he can’t dribble and he’ll find himself on the back post more often.
From what I can see Perez could fill that role if that’s really what we need but I’d rather replace Walcott with someone who’s a far better footballer that scores 3 less goals in the league.
I haven’t rated him as a player for many years but last season he appeared to not give a fuck and I haven’t forgiven him for that. It could easily happen next season too.
This. That Sunderland away performance still angers me. Can’t believe Wenger has made him captain for a few games this season ffs. Had to accept with gritted teeth when he was doing well this season. Now we’ve changed formation hopefully he fucks off.
He only started giving a fuck when he was dropped from the England squad last summer
Embarrassing this prick still plays for us on massive wages.
yup fucking joke…has all that space cant even take on a defender just passing it back all the time. People saying he is low on confidence, but he has been here for so long and even though he contributes goals there are far better players out there most of his goals come against terrible opposition.