Arsène Wenger says Theo Walcott is “fighting very hard” to recapture his best form.
The England international scored after coming off the bench against Watford last weekend - but that goal was only his fourth in 17 Arsenal appearances since the turn of the year.
With Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck impressing of late, Walcott has seen his game time limited, but Wenger believes the 27-year-old has the quality to force his way back into the starting line-up.
"He had good periods in the season. After I think, recently, he has gone through a much more difficult period. But he will come back"
“He works very hard,” the manager said. “I must say he puts the effort in in training.
“At the moment for him, and for Giroud, it’s a bit more difficult. But that’s part of the competition. [Theo] understands that as well and he is fighting very hard.
“But in our job things can change very quickly from one week to the next, it can change.
“He had good periods in the season. After I think, recently, he has gone through a much more difficult period. But he will come back.
“Theo wants to play on the right and through the middle. You have to fix yourself somewhere. When he doesn’t go through the middle, he thinks ‘maybe for me it’s better on the right’.
“It’s true that at some stage I fixed him more through the middle, because of the quality of his runs, the intelligence of his runs, and he has improved a lot his finishing.
“He can be a player through the middle. And on the flanks today you have to work very hard defensively.”
Walcott
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
