Arsenal: Theo Walcott The Missing Ingredient To Alexis Equation
Arsenal’s dismantling of Chelsea showed us that perhaps this Alexis experiment may have worked after all. But was Theo Walcott the missing piece?
Arsenal put three past Chelsea in the first half en route to springing their first win against the Blues in nearly half a decade. It thoroughly shook the demons and there should not be any team out there that the Gunner’s should feel any bit hesitant about.
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Obviously, the first thing that must be addressed is Alexis keeping his starting spot up front. Despite my naysaying, I was proven wrong and am finally willing to admit that, yet again, Arsene knew best. Alexis up front worked wonderfully because of that pressure he keeps on the defenders.
One of the major questions I continued asking about this new formation is where our creativity was going to come from. Ozil is brilliant, but we needed power from the wings as well and between Iwobi and Walcott we had a still unproven youngster and the once-bane of my existence, Theo Walcott.
However, Walcott has been gradually improving this year and what we saw against Chelsea was pure brilliance. He was everywhere on the pitch, doing exactly what Alexis normally does on the pitch. He was like an added fullback, constantly screening Hector Bellerin and giving Arsenal so much more ability to handle Hazard, who looked out of ideas by the 20 minute mark.
Going into half, Walcott was tied for the most tackles on the team. He was a workhorse unlike we’ve ever seen before. The second half settled down a bit, but that’s because Arsenal was protecting and not attacking as much.
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Which got me thinking – could that have been what finally solidified this Alexis experiment?
Without Alexis, as mentioned, Arsenal needed Walcott and Iwobi to be their thinkers out wide. But they also needed Walcott and Iwobi to help out the defense like Alexis did. Iwobi, for as good as he is, doesn’t have that defensive experience yet.
Walcott does, and he showcased it magnificently. It felt like we had an Alexis up front and and Alexis on the right wing as well.
So maybe it wasn’t putting Alexis up front that was the problem. Maybe it was not having Alexis out wide that was the problem. If Walcott can keep this up, stay healthy, and keep dominating like he just did, then there is suddenly no reason to think that this high-octane attack cannot work.
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Go figure that all of that faith in Walcott is finally… finally…. finally paying off. It has been a long journey but if this is the result, and if this result can be sustained, then yet again I must concede that Arsene knows best.
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