Theo Walcott admits he was shocked by Arsene Wenger’s mad scramble for players to take to Arsenal as the transfer window deadline approached.
Walcott has five new team-mates to meet in Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Andre Santos, Park Chu-young and Per Mertesacker when the team returns from international duty on Wednesday.
And Walcott, on England duty ahead of the Wales game tomorrow night, is widely reported this morning as saying: “I have never seen Arsenal do that in all the years I have been there. A lot of teams leave it until last minute so it was interesting to see. We got rid of two great players but we’ve brought a few in and I look forward to seeing them on Wednesday.
“New faces tend to get everyone bubbling. We all have to lift our spirits and hopefully those new signings will do the job. They’ve had so much experience. Arteta in particular is a fantastic player. He can definitely spot a pass and I am looking forward to playing with him.”
In the Mirror, Walcott says althought he game at Old Trafford last week was one of the worst moments of his career, he rates his World Cup heartbreak as his lowest point and it is that which drives him on ahead of next summer’s European Championship.
“That was a massive disappointment for me. I was so down after missing the World Cup, the emotions I was going through. I had my bag packed, everything was already prepared and then it was like running into a brick wall. But now I’ve shown people what I can do, I’ve shown the manager what I can do and he’s seen something different from me as well.
“Old Trafford was probably one of the worst games I have ever been involved in,” said Walcott. “We shouldn’t be losing games by that much and the fans were absolutely fantastic, the last 20 minutes especially.”
And he added in the Sun: “It was completely dead in the dressing room afterwards. It is hard to recover from that result and it could hurt a lot of players. We have got a couple of players who will lift the spirits, though.
“You have to help the younger players. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain made his debut in that game and Carl Jenkinson got sent off, so we will be picking them up. But you are at Arsenal which is a big club and you have to be able to react to those sort of moments.
“We lost 5-1 at Tottenham in the Carling Cup and I just forgot about it. There’s no point sitting and sulking about what you could have done better — the better team won on the day. A lot of people dropped their heads as soon as that fifth goal, sixth, seventh and eighth went in.
“I wouldn’t say we gave up. We tried our best but Manchester United were very strong. They scored some great goals. I ended up playing right-back and gave away a penalty. Maybe the organisation wasn’t quite there either. We’re just going to have to catch up now in our results. I am not worried about the future at Arsenal.
“We got rid of two great players in Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas but we’ve brought Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun in to the midfield. I’m looking forward to seeing them on Wednesday. When you get new faces in, it tends to get everyone bubbling. I think we all have to lift our spirits, we can’t dwell on that United result. Hopefully, those new signings will do the job.”
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