VIDEO: Game of Walcott’s career
Since the days of Thierry Henry, hat-tricks at Arsenal have been a scarce treat, so it was delightful to see a much-maligned 21-year-old net an awesome threesome against a newly-promoted but definitely not feeble Blackpool side.
That show, bar his 2008 hat-trick for England in Croatia, was arguably the highlight of Theo’s career so far, and in a season where he is being called upon to step up to the plate, the former Southampton whiz-kid is doing his reputation no harm.
Enjoy his performance against the Tangerines again!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I2fKr938gQ&feature=digest]Now to improve on his consistency.
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This is what I dont get.. If this is such a big deal and proves theo’s doubters wrong (a phrase I’ve seen many times in the past few days) why weren’t people so excited when adebayor scored hattricks against derby 2-3 years ago? And derby had 11 men!
“Now to improve on his consistency.” – Damn straight! When he does THAT then I’ll get excited, currently he doesnt deserve the opportunity to improve his consistency because hes been so inconsistent for so long! Give someone else a chance!
Davi, maybe we should give you a chance in BBC MOTD next to Alan Bitter Hansen. Adebayor was a central striker who’s expected to score hattricks vs the likes of Derby. Plus, you lyer shoulbd go back and read Arsenal’s fans blogs at the time Adebayor scored those hattricks, he was hailed just as much as Walcott is right now.
Liar? Little harsh. So you’re telling me that the blogs were anywhere near as positive about adebayor’s hattricks as they were about theo’s? From what I remember the positivity centred around the victory of the team, not on the contribution of adebayor alone to the extent it is being centred largely around theo walcott this year. People were also a lot calmer about adebayor because of they were aware of fact it was a very weak PL team. Even in this article which is relatively balanced imo, the phrase “definitely not feeble Blackpool” is concerning. They must have started favourites to go down (at least in the top 3), and they had 10 men…
Davi do u know why what u said just dont add up if it was when every1 said he still has 2 grow as a player like 2 yeears ago u would still say dis with walcot he never has his say people (alan hansern) say he still isnt good enough when he hit a hattric and actually mad crosses and den 2 years ago dey would want more give him a chanse he aint superman jeeze whatch he will prove us all rong
Davi, you are the kind of person who never see anything from the positive perspective.. Just go support spuds if you can stand and support your own team performance..
Well first of all Davi: when Ade scored against Derby he had a good season and gave his best. It was the season after when he got his fat paycheck that he got useless. Secondly: Theo always tries hard. I have never seen him not give 100%. I don’t rate him that highly but his attitude towards the club is why people jump to defend him.
looking through the comments on youtube for that video, and eboue was pointed out.
Its great to see him congratulating theo and being happy for him, even though he’s in his position and stayed on the bench.
Eboue is a religion now. I hope the guy spends the rest of his career at Arsenal, I don’t think he will, but I hope he does. The guy is the consummate legend whose love for the club is incredible.
Ps nice one Theo 🙂
your kidding Eboue is a back up Rb at best i cringe every time i see his name on the starting line up that.s what Walcott Nasri Arshavin Rossiky can do everyone of them has at 1 time or another if 2 out of the 4 are fit Eboue never gets a game or at least shouldn,t
Davi i suspect that there are alot of things that you “don’t get”.
The key to Walcott is supply. So many times last year in the absense of Cesc and RVP his runs went unnoticed.
Had Diaby not pondered and slipped him the ball 2 on 1 at Nou Camp when we were 1 nil up how different our season may have been. He was brilliant on saturday because TR7 and sagna gave him the supply that he needed once he made his runs.
If he gets his supply he will continue to prosper. On top of that the rest would be best served if they would get the finger out and follow into the box both in the centre and the far post a la Freddie/Pires. Far too often Walcott makes a dangerous cross low and hard which is outside the keeper’s reach but there isn’t a redshirt in sight. That is the fault of the rest of the strikeforce not Theo.
He is still 21 which is the same age as a certain young french winger who signed for Arsenal and went on to do some impressive things off the wings and centrally wearing the no. 14 shirt.
Malcontents and has-beens like Hansen will always criticise but true supporters should always support. You don’t strike me as a true supporter though just part of the necessary evil that an extra 20,000 seats tends to bring.
Lol. Don’t give me the “true supporter” line. I always support the players on match day, and I hope theo turns into something but the favouritism he receives is alarming and actually quite disgusting. Not just from arsenal fans but mainly from wenger in fact.
I was one of the few people who has always defended eboue and always said he is a good player. Even today people wont admit that. People still say song is poor, or diaby. I have always supported these players. Theo is the only one, and its not personal against him. I never criticise players for not being good enough, even theo. He has plenty of talent, Im well aware of that and have spoken against people who claim otherwise, but he is not consistent enough to deserve the match time he gets.
Why does/did he deserve any extra match time over vela, or merida & wilshere last year? Is he really any better? He certainly isnt any more reliable. I support the equality of opportunity this club is supposed to stand for (under wenger at least) but walcott is a massive exception to that. This kid got a 60k pw contract before hed put 3 good back to back performances together.
All that crap you wrote about him not getting the service just doesnt hold up. How could he have played so poorly for so many games last season because of lack of service? That’s a two-way street. Rooney scored almost all of his goals last year without taking a first touch. Part of that was definitely because the Utd players give him good passes, but its also because he is so good off the ball. Do you really think Utd’s players are so much better at making chances than arsenals? Theo cant do it against stronger opposition yet, at least not consistently. He will get yet another chance to prove that he can, but there is no reason to be optimistic. He’s just put in his first of probably 2, maybe 3 if we’re lucky, really good performances of the season. And it was against blackpool. Excuse me for remaining calm about it.
If he DOEs FINALLY come good this year, I’ll GLADLY admit I was wrong about this prediction, but it doesnt excuse the time we have spent on this kid. He has kept better players (eboue and even rosicky) out of the side for far too long. It has definitely contributed to our slide from the top of the league, and it’s not been worth it for the development of one player.
Mate while sagna and rosicky did well getting him the ball, thats not why he was brilliant. Blackpools left back was hopeless had an absolute mare trying to deal wih both sagna and walcott. Honestly that was one of the worst defensive displays ive ever seen.
Not saying that walcott didnt have a great game, he did, but ill be shocked if the likes of valencia and lennon dont terrorise that guy as well.
Theo might not have been reliable in the past, sure he is just 21 remember.time has been what arsenal and the coach has always given to his players, henry, ade, diaby, v persie, song do i ve to keep counting. Theo is not the first and won’t be the lasst to enjoy that. right now he is one person we can rely on so let’s give him our support as Eboue did so we can see more hatricks.
Noone has been given 3 whole years of 1st team football. Within half a year, henry and song had both become consistent, top players and Van persie was great as soon as we started playing him, although he was a little older. While bendtner, diaby and denilson (although Im less sure about him tbh) are not exactly consistent, even when off form they are still able to contribute. For example, Diaby is not on top form right now, but I think we would have lost without his physical presence against liverpool.
The main point is that if theo is not consistent after 3 years, he should not still be getting so many chances right now. If we’d been sensible we would not have given him this huge contract and he could have been sent out on loan somewhere. That might have done him a world of good. We have too many talented youngsters to be giving so many chances to just one when he doesnt deliver. Merida is another incredibly talented youngster, who could have taken off last year. He could have been playing a bit more earlier in the season, and he might have stayed at the club had we shown that confidence in him. Our favouritism towards theo has in part cost us one very talented youngster at least, and vela could be next if our manager isnt careful, which would be disastrous imo.
One of the main reasons that Theo played so well is that Blackpool played a very clean game and didn’t try to foul or kick Arsenal players off the pitch.
Blackpool’s manager is a big admirer of Wenger and I’m sure he told his players to be fair and not to commit intentional fouls.
Blackpool were only whistled for 5 fouls during the match (compared to Arsenal’s 10) and Theo was not fouled once.
Now, I don’t expect teams to give us that much respect and courtesy in the future, but I do think that Theo is unfairly targeted sometimes and he needs to get the protection from the referees who should be encouraged to dish out yellow cards to players that kick, pull, or body check Theo when he tries to go past them.
If the refs treated fouls against Theo like they do fouls against Rooney, Gerrard, or even Cristiano Ronaldo when he played in the league, then Theo would soon become one of the best players in the league.
This is not to mention some of the X-rated tackles that go unpunished on Theo from the likes of Ridgewell of Birmingham City for example.
This is true… Fair play to blackpool for their…well, fair play
Davi match time opportunities surely depend on position as much as anything else. pointing out that merida (cesc’s position) or Vela (arshavin/bentner or TR7 etc) didnt get as many chances as Walcott who is only competing against a converted right back albeit a good one in Eboue, is just silly.
I dont remember Vela cutting AC milan apart at the San siro or slaloming through liverpool in the CL before a dive undid us. That was Walcott.
This team requires speed and he provides that. It was speed from Anelka and overmars that got in behind defences and brought us success in 98. It was speed from Henry and lungberg that repeated for us in 2001 and 2004. It is speed that has been sadly absent in recent years. Misuse and overuse of Walcott at 2 international levels whilst trying to recover from surgery for a congenital problem havent helped walcott and criticism from fktards like you is hardly beneficial either.
He is fit he is fired up and our fortunes this year critically and literally depend on his ability to get behind defences so try getting behind him instead on indulging in malcontented and pointless sniping at a player that has a matchball 2 games in.
I’m off to bed . I’m allergic to stupidity and fans that criticise players that are performing make me want to vomit. On both counts you make me unwell.
You ought to be ashamed that you would jump on a media driven criticism-bandwagon that has been running since the 2006 world cup, rather than stand up for a player that never stops trying even if he doesn’t always get it right.I assume you are one of those people that is never wrong. I’d imagine that with each following goal and assist from Walcott, you will remember this debate and it will take from each celebration that you still want to be vindicated by his mistakes.
Terence, merida played right wing in the carling cup for us and vela plays left wing while arshavin can play right. I thought walcott was meant to be a striker as well, ie wenger is willing to play players away from their best position for experience.
Vela hasnt had the chances to play milan or liverpool in the CL. I dont think he is capable of that liverpool run but he could be a better, more complete, more consistent player than theo by now if he’d been given the chances to improve and fit into the side. He did take sergio ramos apart while on loan in spain. Is that nothing?
You do know by the way that vela is the 2nd fastest player at the club? Quicker than traore or clichy… Did you see him in the Carling cup? a few times he scored or set up goals because his pace completely shocked the defenders. So, I agree pace is useful for a squad, and vela has it also. So if walcott doesnt perform, why not give a proper chance to carlos?
Im not jumping on a bandwagon, i said all this right before the match started. I said I thought he might play well (it was blackpool ffs) but he will probably just do his usual and descend back into mediocrity.
“you will remember this debate and it will take from each celebration that you still want to be vindicated by his mistakes.” Please dont flatter yourself. You’ve really beaten yourself by desceding into ad hominem attacks. There was no debate here.
And Ive already said I will gladly admit im wrong. I’ve been wrong in the past many times, sure. I’ve been wrong about theo, cos I thought last january he’d turned the corner, but he hadn’t. I dont hold anything personal against theo, i just dont agree with the chances he gets compared to everyone else. 60k for a player who hasnt played well three times in a row.
The difference between me and you terence (apart from you being an emotional little pussy who has to attack people because they cant argue properly) is that I want all arsenal players to do well, not just one. I wont jump on THIS theo-love bandwagon just because hes had his customary one of three good performances a season. There are others who deserve a chance. Dont act like walcott has nothing to do with vela (and others) not getting chances. Wilshere could have played RW last season ffs.
“Walcott who is only competing against a converted right back albeit a good one in Eboue, is just silly.” – We could also have signed a new winger if what we had wasnt good enough. We do have rosicky and nasri who often play there as well. Are you really forgetting these things?
Davi although i agree with you that people shouldnt be going so crazy about his hat trick and even that what hansen said wasnt really put of line, to say walcott gets some amazing favouritism from the fans is a pile of shit, it really is. At most he gets a slight pass from them because hes young and british and seems like a nice lad. Believe me though he was getting massive stick in the emirates last year (and that includes from myself).
Perhaps wenger does give him a few too many chances but on his day he can skin any defender in the world pretty much and tbh that gives him one up on most other wingers.
Also, it feels as if since players like (fat) ronaldo, messi and rooney came on the scene and started shining so young that people expect it from everyone who shows a little bit of spark early on.
Theo was overhyped from the start due to his pace doing things for bim at southampton that it cant against the better clubs in this division and it doesnt help that his dvelopment has been pretty slow and thats why he gets a lot of criticism from people like hansen and waddle.
Hes still a very raw player and obviously hes never going to have the natural ability of players like cesc and messi, but at 21 hes far from too old to improve his understanding of the game and work on his composure, which are the two things hes lacking. Hes still going to be fast enough to abuse left backs 6 or 7 years from now and thats plenty of time to improve other areas of his game.
@Sam
“he was getting massive stick in the emirates last year” – Ok, I’m completely unaware of that. It has always been my impression that the vast majority stick by him. Occasionally people grumble about his performances, but most seem to be pleased to see his name on the teamsheet next game, or at least not disappointed. He does have a fanatical element to his support, I think that’s true. The people who were so outraged he didnt make the england squad.
“doesnt help that his dvelopment has been pretty slow” – I think this was the mistake of wenger. He seemed to think walcott WAS like messi/cesc and able to be a big contributer from an early age. I think he was unable to admit his mistake and that is the real problem.
“at 21 hes far from too old to improve his understanding of the game” – Yes, that was the part of what hansen said that I thoroughly disagreed with. Every player improves the mental aspects of their game with age, and theo will too.
Hey boys!
wanna comment on this, cause I feel I agree with both the arguments..
Yes, I agree that I nobody should be getting their hopes up yet, over Theo’s preformance.. we were playing a team with 10- men. who were exhausted after probably 45 minutes.. and when u are tired, Theo is not a player you wanna go running with..
As said ,Theo has been a terrorist against Milan and Liverpool,- and that is where we all see the potential that Theo has. I’ve always believed that a good team performance makes the players better iqually..
And I believe our team will get better and better every week, hence Theo will get better every week. it all comes down to consistency, and injuries. No doubt Theo will become a fantastic player, but I doubt he has become one just over this summer. btw I remember a time we were all booing Eboue of the planet earth, so as I said,- its all down to consistency from all our players
I still do not believe either Theo or Rosicky will perform like this again every week, But I KNOW the potential is there.
I just love these videos!
I tells you, I wasn’t that impressed with Theo’s hat trick against Croatia – his goals seemed to be a bit lucky, not too well taken, and against an out of form Croatia side that was missing two of its best players.
However, his performance against Blackpool was something to behold. His dribbling, turn of foot, passing, and shooting were top notch. I was especially impressed with his 3rd goal, taken left-footed which curled just inside the post.
Personally I was expecting Theo to break out last season, but injuries seemed to dampen that, especially considering that he was supposed to play centre forward in the Carling Cup, but was hacked down by Birmingham’s Ridgewell and by the time he recovered, the kids had already been eliminated from the that competition.
Missing the World Cup does appear to be a blessing in disguise. Theo has looked very motivated in these first two matches and his work rate has definitely improved.
Theo also says that he is now staying late after training and working on aspects of his game.
He is learning some new tricks and coupling that with his pace, he has the potential to be one of the world’s very best players.
I hope that his recent hat-trick against Blackpool will boost his self belief and confidence. I am looking forward to see him playing to his full potential for the glory of The Arsenal.
Today’s match at Blackburn i believe in Arsenal.
I expect 2-1 arsenal win!!!
Scoring players : ARSHAVIN,CHAMAKH