'We can beat anyone with that intensity'

Theo Walcott says Arsenal can beat anyone if they maintain the "intensity" of their performance in Istanbul on Wednesday night.

The England international played a prominent role in his team's 3-0 victory against Fenerbahce in the first leg of their Champions League play-off, setting up the opening goal for Kieran Gibbs before winning the penalty that Oliver Giroud converted.

According to Walcott, it was the perfect riposte to Saturday's defeat against Aston Villa.

"It was very important [to win] after such a disappointing start to the Premier League," he told Arsenal Player.

"We dominated the game tonight, we knew what we had to do. There was a lot of pressure on us as well and we're happy we got that clean sheet, which was important.

"As players we don't take any notice of that [criticism]. We know the best person to listen to, and our best critic, is the manager. We knew it [the Villa game] was very disappointing and we needed to bounce back from it. I think tonight was the perfect result and we can have a nice enjoyable journey home now."

The togetherness within Arsenal's squad shone through in Istanbul and Walcott believes the pre-season trip to Asia bolstered team spirit.

"You can see the bonding that took place on tour," he said. "We always had a great laugh together. It's a tight group we've got here, we're always together, we've always been behind each other.

"We work hard for each other and that's the most important thing - if everyone works hard for each other we can get the results.

"I think at the weekend that probably wasn't the case, and we knew how disappointing it was. You don't want to start a season like that but, like I said, that's out of the window now. We've forgotten about that and we're concentrating on Fulham. And if we perform like that, with that intensity, we can beat anyone."