Theo Walcott
Posted in2022-2023-Season Daily News

#PLStories- Southampton ace Theo Walcott makes ’emotional’ Arsenal admission ahead of must-win #ArsenalFC #SAINTSFC

April 20, 2023
Ex-England international Walcott made 397 appearances and scored 108 goals for the Gunners following a move from St Mary’s in 2006. The 34 year old has already scored against Arsenal for Saints back in December 2020, while initially on loan before making a permanent return to his boyhood side. Now, Walcott is likely to line up against Arsenal again but this time with the Gunners chasing the Premier League title and Saints facing relegation to the Championship. There is no time for sentimentality in the forward, as Ruben Selles’s charges sit four points adrift of safety with seven matches to play. “Every game is a win, it’s as simple as that. We need points, points. It will be an emotional game for myself, personally,” Walcott admitted. “But I’ve got to go out there and do a job and that’s to try and play as well and as hard as I can for this club and see where that takes us. “Arsenal are top of the league for a reason, we get that. We’re realists, I am particularly, so we’re not stupid, we know it will be a tough game.” Walcott added: “But a Friday night game, you never know. Hopefully, we’ll catch them in a doze but we’ll see. It’s going to be a very interesting battle.” The experienced forward has been called on by Selles to help lead a young dressing room out of potential disaster, with two managers sacked already this campaign. Walcott and the senior leadership group have been unable to shake off a mental scourge that has followed conceding the first goal in Premier League matches. In all competitions, Saints have lost 14 games by just one goal this season – including a number of six-pointers versus relegation rivals. “I don’t know what you want me to say about that,” Walcott said. “In the Premier League you need to get the first goal, it’s so important. “The level, we’re playing a team who has a lot of confidence at this time with Roy (Hodgson), they’ve had a complete change and it’s working for them and everything we’re doing at the moment…it’s just not quite going our way. “We need to just essentially forget about this game, we can’t change anything now. I know it’s such a cliche but we’re looking at the next game now. “But you’re looking at other results now too, it’s as simple as that, you do. You look at results and make sure we don’t get too cut adrift now.”
Mikel Arteta Arsenal
Posted in2022-2023-Season Daily News

#PLStories- Mikel Arteta admits win over Bournemouth was madness from start to finish #ARSENALFC

March 5, 2023
Gary O’Neil’s men threatened a major shock, his relegation-threatened side leading 2-0 against the Premier League leaders thanks to goals from Philip Billing and Marcos Senesi. But the Gunners roared back, equalising with Thomas Partey and Ben White on target, before Reiss Nelson smashed in a stunning winner in the final seconds of stoppage time. Reflecting on the 3-2 victory, which puts Arsenal back five points clear of Manchester City, boss Arteta said: “It was an extraordinary day, a beautiful experience at the end. Very dramatic, but worth living it because it was a great end to it. “Everybody is overwhelmed a little bit. “It was madness from the first second of the game. “Then you have to start to climb a mountain against 10 players behind the ball. We tried in every single way. “We didn’t score the goal and suddenly you are 2-0 down with a set play again.” He added: “After that, don’t lose the shape, don’t lose the discipline and start to do all the simple things right and try to score the first one. “We did that and we showed our maturity and our resilience to do that. “Once we’d done that, the atmosphere and the place changed the energy.”