Have I ever quoted Theo Walcott on ANR before?
After starring that 3-0 annihilation of Manchester United on Sunday, Walcott said, “Today was unbelievable, that 25-minute period, no one could have dealt with us in the first half.”
Theo has been a boy and a prospect. He’s been an understudy and an international and a crock. He’s been a winger and a squad player and a disappointment. He’s been a nearly-man for years. He’s been a sub and a forward without a position.
But if he plays like that, the sky’s the limit.
And if Theo Walcott shaves off that beard, he can be the next David Beckham.
The absence of Giroud has allowed Arsenal to return to speed football on the deck. Which is Wenger’s first love.
Walking home from the paper shop just now, I recalled a Talk Sports show I did from their studios in East London. The show was in a week when England were playing.
And it was an easy-going atmosphere and a lot of fun, unlike a couple of other radio shows I did in the same period, where the presenters were arseholes.
We talked about my newly-published hardback, The Professor, and I explained that I had been very well-placed to understand exactly what culture and what players the Frenchman had inherited when he arrived in 1996.
Then we went over live to a Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England press conference, and came back to the studio to answer questions from listeners who phoned in.
One Arsenal fan asked me to compare George Graham and Arsene Wenger.
My reply was, “With George, his three priorities were organisation, organisation and organisation.With Arsene it’s pace, pace and pace.”
The record will show that on Super Sunday, flyers like Sanchez, Walcott and Bellerin all sliced forward with turbo-charged pace, and Arsenal blew Manchester United away.
Speed football is also momentum football, as Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund often demonstrated.
Klopp to Liverpool ? I heard that last night & friends confirmed.
Bigger news is coming to Merseyside: new owners.