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.
Theo Walcott said: “Every game is a win, it’s as simple as that. We need points, points. It will be an emotional game for myself, personally. 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. 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.
Theo Walcott said: “I don’t know what you want me to say about that. 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.”
