Arsène Wenger has confirmed that Theo Walcott is close to signing a new contract with Arsenal, with the England forward continuing to impress during pre-season after scoring the winner against Wolfsburg.
Arsenal go into next Sunday’s Community Shield against Chelsea on the back of successive pre-season victories, securing a 1-0 win in the Emirates Cup against Wolfsburg having eased past Lyon 6-0 on Saturday. Walcott scored the only goal of the game against the Bundesliga runners-up, finishing past Diego Benaglio five minutes into the second half following excellent work from the French youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide.
Walcott agreed a £90,000-a-week deal 18 months ago after a protracted period of negotiation and Arsenal appear set to avoid a similar saga by offering the 26-year-old an increased wage. Asked if he had signed new terms, Wenger said: “Not yet. But we are getting closer and closer and hopefully we can finalise it very soon.”
Walcott endured a frustrating 2014-15 season as he recovered from a cruciate ligament injury sustained against Tottenham in January 2014. But after scoring the opening goal in the FA Cup final win over Aston Villa, he was in sharp form once again on Sunday.
“Another goal for Theo and I’m not surprised by that because I played him through the middle,” said Wenger. “I’ve always said he’s a goalscorer because he has the movement, he has the timing of the finishing, the speed; he has an eye for taking his chances at the right moment. When he gets in these positions he can finish well. Yesterday when he came on he nearly scored, today he scored. That shows he will score goals.
“He has his own way. He’s not what you would call the aggressive striker, he’s the mobile striker. The striker who lives from the speed and quality of his movement, but he turns up in the right space in the box. He understands well, he anticipates quickly and, linked with his speed of execution, it makes him always dangerous.
“If you ask him where he loves to play, even he is not certain. Sometimes he prefers the left because when he makes a good run he can score goals as well. I think in his head he would love to play with a strong guy next to him, playing off him. But we have so many offensive players it is difficult to combine all this together.”
Petr Cech made his first appearance at the Emirates Stadium in an Arsenal shirt, with the goalkeeper’s every touch cheered enthusiastically by the 59,815 crowd. There were even Czech Republic flags waved to celebrate Cech’s arrival from Chelsea, from where he joined this summer for £10m.
It was another player, though, who caught the eye against Wolfsburg. Reine-Adelaide, the teenager signed from Lens, showed strength, awareness and precision to set up Walcott for the goal and Wenger stated he would not be loaned out during the season ahead.
“Yes, definitely here,” he said when asked whether Reine-Adelaide would stay at Arsenal this year. “He’s 17 and looks very promising but needs to work with us now for another year with the first team. He needs to be in and out, play with the under-21s and to develop. There’s fantastic potential there but he will stay with us.
“We had a good opportunity to watch him today. In some situations he, of course, has the game of a 17-year-old but on the other hand he has shown great potential as well. And physically he is very advanced for a 17-year-old, I’m sure he has learned a lot from these two days.”