Gooner Talk’s Player of the Month: Theo Walcott (October 08)
Theo Walcott’s sparkling form for Arsenal has earned the teenager the GoonerTalk.com Player of the Month award for October.
How Theo Won The Award
The 19-year-old started the month in decent fashion putting in a hard-shift against Roy Keane’s dogged and determined Sunderland team and despite going 1-0 down, Cesc Fabregas headed an equaliser in the dying seconds of added stoppage time.
Things improved for the England whizkid two weeks later when he was given another start at Everton by Gunners boss Arsene Wenger – a sign of the Frenchman’s continued faith in Walcott – and he certainly didn’t disappoint. Theo wrapped up a comeback for the North London giants in the final few minutes with a crisp effort struck past Tim Howard.
It was to get even better for Theo though, as Arsenal took on Turkish giants Fenerbahce – a team unbeaten on their home turf for over 17 games. Emmanuel Adebayor gave Wenger’s side the lead before Walcott doubled the Gunners’ tally in the most extraordinary of fashion’s from an acute angle. The Ashburton Grove-based side capped off a fine peformance in the second half coming out unbelievable 5-2 winners.
Two London Derbies were to follow for England’s most promising young star as Arsenal travelled to Upton Park for a game against a weakened West Ham team. Gianfranco Zola made sure his new club pressured and held their line, but when Theo Walcott came racing through on goal before unleashing a spectacular shot that hit the crossbar, he knew his luck wasn’t going to be in for long. Togolese frontman Emmanuel Adebayor scored two decisive efforts which won the game late on.
Walcott’s final game of the month came at home in the first North London derby. Harry Redknapp worked wonders with Portsmouth last season, claiming the FA Cup for the South Coast side for the first time since 1939, he managed to work those same sort of wonders at the Emirates.
Trailing to David Bentley’s stunning opener, Arsenal exposed Spurs’ weakness at defending set-pieces to lead through Mikael Silvestre and William Gallas. Emmanuel Adebayor added his obligatory goal – he now has eight from seven starts before Darren Bent pulled one back. Robin van Persie netted his 50th goal for Arsenal to make it 4-2, but Spurs have a new resilience under Redknapp and Jermaine Jenas’ late strike gave them hope before Lennon struck at the death.
A superb month for young Theo, and there’s surely more to come from the teenager, Gooner Talk look forward to following Theo’s progress throughout the season.
