Arsenal: Theo Walcott Pulse Not To Be Taken Out Of Context

Arsenal witnessed a pretty inspired effort from Theo Walcott, but seeing a blip on the radar doesn’t mean we should sell out to appease it.

Arsenal decided it was, yet again, not in their best interest to start Lucas Perez. It’s becoming apparent that the Spaniard could save Arsene Wenger from a burning building and he would still not get a start.

Instead, Wenger went with Theo Walcott. The man I love to criticize.

Strangely enough, it worked out. I wondered before the match if Alexis Sanchez and Walcott had exchanged Polyjuice Potion before the match to catch Bayern of guard and I am still wondering. But assuming that didn’t happen, Walcott was superb. He did all the things I always harp on him for not being able to do.

He created for himself. He dribbled effectively. He wasn’t a liability on the ball. The speed that has come to define him was on full display. Even his hit or miss finishing had a moment of pure hit before sinking back into the usual miss.

Slowly but surely, Walcott has accumulated 16 goals across all competitions this season in just over 1800 minutes of play. That number is actually pretty stunning. We all knew he was a goal poacher, but that is a lot of poaching. And the argument that he doesn’t do it against big teams is tough to use here, as he did it against Bayern Munich.

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Still, I can’t help but remind everyone to exercise caution with Walcott optimism. The numbers are impressive, but the cons still outweigh the pros. What we saw against Bayern Munich is not the normal Walcott and until he shows us more examples of this version of him, there is no need to read into this brief pulse too much.

It’s a telling sign when even Arsene Wenger is steering away from using the longest-tenured Gunner. Even if it is to painfully stick with Iwobi, clearly something about Walcott’s game isn’t sitting well with Le Prof and it makes sense. He has not been consistent at all this year.

His success has come when the entire team was in brilliant form. This “creating for himself” is the oddball out.

That being said, I would love to see more of it. I love being proven wrong by players and it would just make my day if this can be Walcott’s new normal.

Next: 5 Gunners That Can Restart Under Allegri

I won’t get my hopes up though.

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