Little Theo Walcott, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you. The Englishman in the most lustrous attacking football team in the country finally got his chance to sparkle last night and his two goals gave English football something it could cling to. As the national team prepares to enter a long, dark winter of the soul, any fragile hope will do.

“At times it was a joy to watch,” Arsène Wenger said although he was not just talking about Walcott but the whole Arsenal attacking ensemble that swept past Slavia Prague on seven occasions. This team of Wenger’s have been accused of trying to walk the ball into the net at times and, for the seventh goal from substitute Nicklas Bendtner, they did exactly that. It was gripping stuff with Walcott at the heart of it.

The 18-year-old was only denied a hat-trick by a despairing save from Martin Vaniak in the 81st minute, but that was just about all the Slavia goalkeeper stopped. The seven-goal margin equalled the biggest-ever victory in the Champions League and for Walcott it was a night that he will never forget. Wenger agreed there was “a touch of Thierry Henry” about Walcott’s second goal, although that particular old boy does not seem to be missed one bit.

From The Independent

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Champions League, Theo Walcott, Arsenal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.