Theo Walcott spoke to Arsenal Player earlier on Friday and discussed his joy at featuring up front for the north London side.
The England international has returned to his goal scoring ways in recent games against Dinamo Zagreb and Stoke City, as well as contributing to England’s 6-0 win in San Marino with two goals after coming off the bench in the second half.
The goals are coming, which is great.
I have always said to the manager that I can always play in a three-man forward line so it is a good option for him.
At the moment he believes I can do it up front and the more I play up front, the more the players will see the runs I make and what I do on the pitch as well.
I will be judged on the [number] of goals I score.
You can play the best game in the world but if you don’t score it doesn’t mean anything. But I’m very confident I can do a job up front.
Toward the end of last season, Theo was easily Arsenal’s best player. Wenger started him up front against West Brom in the final league game of the season, he went on to score a first half hat-trick as Arsenal went on to beat the side from the Midlands.
This gave Wenger little choice but to play Walcott as Arsenal’s main striker, ahead of Olivier Giroud, in the FA Cup final just a week later, and that decision paid off, after Walcott put the Gunners 1-0 up in the first half, contributing to a 4-0 win.
Up front you need to do the different side of the game such as holding it up for your team-mates and trying to play people in.
The players with a big build like Olivier Giroud do that tremendously well.
It is something I will definitely learn and get better at but if I can create more space for other players to come into the game, that is important as well.
There are loads of different scenarios that can happen up front so I can play in any one of those three.
Walcott will most likely start up front for Arsenal this Saturday when Arsenal travel to the King Power Stadium and face Leicester City.
