Arsenal star Theo Walcott changes his mind again… and claims he is now happy to the wing for Arsene Wenger
England man previously told boss he wanted to play as striker but has hit record goal tally from wide position this term
THEO WALCOTT is heading for the most productive season of his career after finally answering the doubts about his Arsenal career.
The Gunners’ longest-serving player entered the campaign under a massive cloud and wondering if he still had a long-term future at the Emirates.
Out of Arsene Wenger’s starting line-up and omitted from England’s European Championship squad, Walcott feared the writing was on the wall for him.
But an opening day injury to Aaron Ramsey opened the door to regular first team football and he has not looked back since.
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He has already equalled last season’s nine-goal tally and with the help of Alexis Sanchez believes he could surpass the career-best 21 goals he scored four seasons ago.
“Me and Alexis are having a very good relationship at the moment,” Walcott says. “We created a lot of goals for each other at the start of the season and that’s starting to happen again now.
“Alexis has definitely stepped up to making the central position his own and I can tell from his smile that he’s enjoying himself at the moment.
“Olivier Giroud will be very frustrated with the number of games he’s playing when you look at his scoring record and how effective he’s been whenever he’s on the pitch.
“He’s a completely different type of player to Alexis and he just keeps reminding the manager what he can do.
“At the start of the season I sat down with the manager and said where I wanted to play so now I don’t have to worry about anything else.
“I made it clear I prefer to play out wide but with my experience of playing in the central position, I can still truck the goals when I find myself in the middle.
“That’s what I have been doing so far this season and I’m delighted with my goals so far coming in from the wing.
“I want to get to ten goals before Christmas because my wife has promised to buy me a coffee machine if I manage that, so hopefully that will happen soon.
“Everything seems to be clicking into place but I’m still working hard in training, in the gym and on the mental side of things to make sure I’m the best I can be every day.
“If I can stay fit then hopefully it can be a good season, not just for me but for everyone else at the club.”
Walcott, 27, has now scored 99 goals at club level for Arsenal and Southampton after Sunday’s header in the 3-1 win against Bournemouth.
“We know we can do better but we’re still undefeated since the opening day of the season so everyone is in good spirits,” he reports.
“We’ve had some very tough games in recent weeks and managed to squeeze out results which maybe we didn’t deserve.
“But that show the character we now have. In previous years we might have lost those games but we have more leaders in the dressing room who are prepared to take responsibility to any mistakes.
“There’s at least four teams in the title race this season and there could be more. It’s the best league in the world and the most exciting because the lower teams will take points off all the big clubs.
"We can’t control what the other teams are doing so there’s no point wasting energy worrying about their results. We can only concentrate on ourselves and see where that takes us.”