Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that he didn’t start Theo Walcott against Watford because he’d just spent almost six weeks out injured.
Walcott started against Southampton in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the weekend and he scored a hat-trick in the 5-0 thrashing.
Despite hitting top form on his return from injury, Walcott started on the bench against Watford at the Emirates Stadium last night during the Gunners’ 2 -1 defeat.
Wenger has revealed that he decided to put the Englishman – who had missed the last five league games prior to Tuesday – on the bench because he had been out injured for almost six weeks recently.
“He played in the second half. If you look at his history, he was not played in five and half weeks,” Wenger said in his post-match press conference when asked why he didn’t start Walcott.
“He was stiff yesterday. I kept him out of training yesterday. We have three games this week. We know well. Don’t think we are completely stupid in the way we make decisions. I think it was a normal decision.
“I don’t know. It’s very difficult to know. It would be a very easy excuse [not playing Walcott]. We prepared the game well. We were warned that Watford would come and make it very physical. I have no basic regret in the way we prepared the game. Did we think subconsciously that we’ll turn up and it’ll work, I don’t know. From the stand, I agree with you. Our first half was not at the level we wanted.”
Walcott is having a superb season in front of goal having now hit 14 goals in all competitions which ranks as the second best of his career thus far.
In 2010-11, Walcott scored 13 goals all season and then set a new career high two seasons later with 21 in all competitions. With plenty more games for the Gunners to come this season, the winger could be set for a career-high of goals.
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