Interview

‘We just went out to enjoy ourselves’

Theo Walcott was in excellent form as we beat BATE Borisov 6-0 on Thursday night.

The England international scored our second goal and went on to create our next three. After the game, he spoke to the media.

on the performance…

I’d say that it was a performance that everyone enjoyed. Tonight we had already qualified, we went out with a bit of freedom. The manager said to go out and enjoy ourselves, that there was no pressure. Us players want to be playing every game we can. That’s what we’re doing at this moment in time in the Europa League but now we need to take that into the Premier League. It’s great to get through to the next stage and there are a lot of players that will have given the manager a headache. 

on how important playing in the Europa League has been…

As I said before, when called upon, we need to be ready for the Premier League. When you get your chance in the cup competitions, you’ve got to be able to take them. I think a lot of guys have done themselves proud tonight and not just tonight but throughout the whole group stage. Now we need to take this forward into the knockout stage, where it gets even more serious. There’s a lot of players that can raise their heads high, definitely.

on how hard the competition will become with Champions League teams dropping down…

It says it it all when Champions League teams drop out. It boosts that competition even more - there are top-quality teams that are going to be in the competition even more. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens next. We’re excited, it’s nice to get these teams coming through but we’ll fancy ourselves against anyone if we perform like we did tonight. At times it looked easy but we went out there and enjoyed it, and that’s what it’s about. When you see a whole group of players enjoying themselves, that’s what it’s about, I believe.

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