04/02/2013
It was 26th February 2012, the day of arguably the biggest fixture in the Arsenal calendar in any given season, at the Home Of Football Vs Tottenham Hotspur, The North London derby. Around 30 minutes in to the game, Arsenal were 0-2 down, at home to their bitter local rivals, meaning the time the team were sitting 12 points behind their rivals in the hunt for "Champions League" qualification. It was in a quite frankly the "disaster scenario" for Arsenal and our fans. However one player that it seemed was taking the brunt of the stick was Mr Theo James Walcott, Arsenal's number 14. He seemed to be completely out of sorts, short of ideas and completely shot of any kind of confidence or believe. The fans were really getting on his back, frustration was well and truly "in the air", and he was feeling the full force of it! It was very sad to see.
However from 1/2 time in that game to now, I do not think that Theo has looked back. This was something that I was thinking about the other day, and was just mentioned on the Fans Forum on Arsenal Player. Since that moment he has gone from the brunt of criticism, with many fans loosing patience with him and calling for him to be sold, to people begging for him to sign da ting and rejoicing when he did. This is a quite remarkable transformation really. He has been absolutely sensational this season, is currently on 18 goals and 11 assits for the season, formulating an involvement in 29 of Arsenal's 76 goals this season. A great contribution.
He has looked every inch the quality player that he is, and has oozed confidence throughout this season which has really shone through in his play. He has also started to really use his pace more effectively and more frequently. I remember in previous seasons, sat at the game just shouting for Theo to take the defender on, because he just has such pace, but this was never really forthcoming. However, in this campaign he has looked just so much more dangerous. I believe this is partly down the fact that he has played almost as a "false winger" if you like, in the sense that he plays on the wing, however comes inside much much more frequently than he has done in the past. This has meant that he has made many more runs across the defence, meaning that he has got "in behind" the opposition, with his pace, a lot lot more than he had prior to this campaign. This has meant that he is a lot more of a threat to the opposition, therefore has scored more goals, simple hey! He really has used his pace much more frequently.
It is not just his goals that have made him a key player, and a crowd favorite, at The Arsenal. But it's also down to the fact that he has also made massive improvements in terms of his delivery, his crossing, from wide areas. In the past he was one of those very frustrating players, almost like Gervinho now, who would do great, get towards the byline and then just completely fluff the cross, or elect to pass when he should have shot, or shot when he should have passed e.t.c. This was extremely frustrating for us fans to see. This led to many so called pundits to claim that Theo did not have a "football brain". However, this season all has changed. The fact that he has 11 assists shows this. His delivery or "final product" as I like to call it, has improved beyond all recognition really. The one that really sticks out for me is the cross that he made during (ironically) the game against Spurs at home this season, where he whipped in a delicious cross with his back to goal for Mertesacker to score that fantastic header to put us level. It really was a great example of how he has really improved in this area. It really is great to see this from Theo.
So when you remember the reception that Theo was getting during the game against Spurs at home last season, to lets say, the reception he got during the Newcastle demolition at The Emirates this season. Where cries of "sign him up sign him up sign him up" were ringing round for most of the second half. So in less than a year he really has gone almost from zero in some parts of our fan-base to hero almost throughout. This was clear during the "sign da ting" process until recently. He really is a key player for us, that is for sure. And to go from the performance and frustration in the first half vs Spurs last season to where he is now, he really has shown tremendous mental strength, perseverance and belief in his own ability and quality.
Lets hope that Theo continues to develop, continues to improve for many many years to come at Arsenal. As I said on my article discussing Walcott and Bale, he still has a number of years before he reaches his "peak years" so this really is exciting!!
UP THE ARSENAL!!!
@Mr_arsenal_blog - do tweet me your thoughts!!!
THEO THEO THEO THEO!! .................
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
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