Can Walcott help to save Arsenal's season?

 

 

 

 

COMMENT: Alexis Sanchez has carried his side's Champions League hopes almost single-handedly this season - can the England international help the Gunners into the top four again?

It must be almost as Theo Walcott imagined. A seriously quick attacker is the darling of the Emirates Stadium. He figures prominently on the list of the Premier League's top scorers. He is expected to be in the reckoning for the player of the year awards. He is serenaded and celebrated.

Except, of course, that it isn’t Walcott, but Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean is having the campaign the Englishman long promised to enjoy. But even with his 17 goals, Arsenal only sit sixth.

Their season could go one of two ways: the Gunners could finish in the top four as usual, make a laudable attempt to retain the FA Cup and finally win a Champions League knockout tie or two; or fail on all fronts.

It is why Walcott's return is so significant. He could be the rescue act, a player parachuted into the team to salvage Arsenal's season, the returnee who gives them impetus in the final few months of the season and the man who relieves the burden on Alexis' shoulders.

It is unfair to expect the summer signing to keep on carrying Arsenal. As it is, one of Alexis's many achievements is to camouflage the blow of Walcott's absence. But for his brilliance, memories of the electric Englishman eviscerating opponents would have lingered longer.

Were it not for Alexis, Walcott could have been Arsenal's equivalent of Daniel Sturridge: never available but ever-present in the conversation simply because he was missed so much.

Now, it is more than a year since Walcott was stretchered off with a knee injury, signalling the scoreline to the Tottenham fans who taunted him. Then he had delivered five goals in his previous five league games.

*2013-14 Premier League stats

He is a player who can score in spurts, can sustain his form in front of goal and can strike against the best. Consider his 21-goal 2012-13 season. It included one run of 14 goals in 14 Arsenal games, another of four in four and a third of three in three.

Those sort of scoring sequences can give a team momentum. With Olivier Giroud injured and suspended, and Danny Welbeck yet to prove prolific, only Alexis has looked capable of going on an extended run of scoring for Arsenal. When a side has two such scorers, their horizons are expanded.

And look who those 21 goals came against: Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and West Ham, among others. Now United, Liverpool, Spurs and the Hammers are all among Arsenal's rivals for a top-four finish. Their meetings are six-pointers. The importance of a winner, or even an equaliser, in such clashes could be measured in the millions.

Meanwhile, Manchester City also loom large for Arsenal. They go to the Etihad Stadium next Sunday. Their last trip resulted in a 6-3 defeat. But it also brought Walcott two goals. As Alexis has shown, pace can give a team greater penetration. If they team up, it could mean double trouble for defences.

The chances are that Alexis's supreme form will deny Walcott the role he really covets, as a central striker. But Arsene Wenger has long looked reluctant to play him there. Instead, the Chilean's adaptability provides possibilities.

He has flourished as a front man, a No.10, a right winger and a left winger for Arsenal. But of all the many positions he can play, he may be least potent on the right. It offers an opening for Walcott.

Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have prospered when used infield this season. Welbeck will deliver his trademark endeavour wherever he is selected but his track record suggests he will provide fewer goals from the right than Walcott. Certainly, none of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil wants to be told his future lies there.

So in a squad that is overloaded with attack-minded midfielders and versatile forwards, there is only one real specialist on the right. Many of Wenger's selections this season have consisted of finding the 11 fit men he trusts most, then shoehorning them into a side, often with some out of position. It isn't exactly a lasting formula for success.

Now – and at the risk of tempting fate – Arsenal's injury problems might finally be ending. Perhaps Walcott will make his first league start in 12 months against Stoke on Sunday. If not, he should be in the starting XI soon. Because the time of crowbarring square pegs into round holes ought to be ending.

Walcott is the right man for the right wing. And his return may be at the right time for Arsenal.