I’m going to be shot down by the zealots here but I’ve always felt that if wasn’t Wengers idea so despite the fact that it seemed good the firsts excuse he had to stop it he grabbed and never changed back.
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Yes. There were. Who scored tells the whole story. I wanted to just take a screen shot of his history and circle 2012-13 and 13-14 but couldn’t figure out how to do it efficiently.
I was asking out of curiosity rather than to try and talk Walcott down. Whenever I see the x goals and assists in y starts my first thought is whether the stat is representative, or if there are a load of minutes racked up in sub appearances that should probably be counted. Appreciate you were aiming for shorthand, and don’t disagree the stats are pretty good. My opinion on his vacillated a lot throughout his career, but he was definitely a good player to have around at times,if always limited in some respects.
I think the per minute stats come out very nicely for those two years. In fact I remember his 12-13 being compared statistically with Bale’s (in the end 24 PL starts is still a bit of a truncated season, even if he played most games that season) and him coming out very favourably. Which isn’t to say he was Bale’s level but rather that it was indeed a very high level season.
12-13: npgoal or assist every 95.25 min
13-14: npgoal or assist every 95.44 min
Compare with
Alexis 14-15: npgoal or assist every 123 min
Alexis 15-16: npgoal or assist every 144 min
Alexis 16-17 (when played through the centre often): npgoal or assist every 100.75 min
Now consider how Alexis was considered as an Arsenal player, and how Theo was.
Quite simply, Theo in 12-13 put together the best season of any Arsenal wide forward since Pires or Ljungberg, and we’ve yet to see that kind of production matched since then.
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This is all well and good, but someone help out @BigWeng_4LYFE !
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Yeah I seem to remember his per minute stats being good in that period.
Wouldn’t be surprised. Despite BradyMagic’s illusions to the contrary Wenger was a big fan of the traditional CF, and did not like small, or in his mind ‘incomplete’, CFs. He moved Alexis back to the wing whenever he had a chance that season despite us being notably more potent with Alexis played through the middle.
Now I’ll ask you: was Alexis ever world class? Because if he was then you’d probably say that Walcott during that time frame was in fact world class.
Not really interested in the boring semantics of what constitutes world class and what doesn’t, though. What’s more interesting are the bare bones stats above, IMO.
Did I? Pretty sure I always had put class haha.
Amazed to see that even Sterling last season, in a team that scored 95 goals (in comparison with Arsenal’s 72 in 2012-13) did not match up to Theo’s season, with a npgoal contribution every 102.85 minutes 
Was indeed a top class season that.
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Was 12/13 the season he was angling for a move/bumper contract and bagged a hat trick v the Barcodes?
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Can’t stop, I’m on a Theo stats binge:
Was thinking, even in 10-11 when he was oft injured and in and out of the team, I remember him being rather class. The stats back this up: npgoal contribution every 106 min.
Still one of my great regrets that we got to see the strongest XI of Song-Wilshere/Diaby-Fábregas Nasri-RvP-Walcott play together so few times that season.
11-12, though, while not a bad season, he was a bit of a cunt: every 172 min. Remember openly begging to anyone who would listen to me to stop the torture of having to watch him for Arsenal and for Gervinho to unseat him (lol). Came around quick in 12-13 though. 11-12 has to be the most painful season of watching Arsenal for me in the Wenger era, and it’s got some real competition in 14-15 and 16-18 seasons. That team was literally:
shit
shit-Koscielny-shit-shit
shit-shit-shit
shit-RvP-shit
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I watched quite a lot of Abumeyang in 2012/13, his last season in france. Was scouting him for Arsenal. :bellend:
And I remember saying, on another forum, something in a sense he’s a taller Theo Walcott and we didn’t need a player that similar to Theo.
Imagine Theo had Auba’s unjury record in the last decade. :giroud3:
Yes, that’s the main difference between them, actually Theo had more tools/talent when they were younger (around 20-21, I don’t want to go further back).
I’m not downplaying Auba, I’m just pointing out what an impact injuries had on Theo, and what an importance being injury free was for Auba and his developement (and any other player) a player who was a brilliant athlete back then, but far from a world class talent/goalscorer. Theo was actually a bigger goal threat back then, undoubtedly, and also offered more as a winger, being a better dribbler and crosser. Again, Auba was a brilliant athlete and and never got injured, all his other qualities (dribbling, finishing, even positioning at that point) were far from an outstanding, world class talent he is today.
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Oh yeah I remember the time I was vying for Theo to win PL player of the season.
I would argue that Aubas movement is much more intelligent than Theo’s ever was even before he was injured and I think Auba is a better finisher too.
I thought Theo really disappointed compared to his early potential although possibly injury was a key problem for his career.
Theo had a few good spells but a lot more periods where he frustrated.
Think he lacked the intelligence and drive to make the most of his talent.
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Anyone?
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Some serious revisionism going on. This guy was as fucking frustrating as they come lol. Couldn’t beat a man with anything other than pace, hugely inconsistent, wasn’t good enough to be a lone striker for Arsenal and didn’t have anything other than pace to be a top quality wide man.
He had one season where he looked good and that was it lol. This guy was a moments player if ever we’ve had one.
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Don’t do it. Just says it’s been signed by Walcott. Not Theo Walcott. Could be any Walcott.
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There’s exactly the same revisionism for Fabregas on this forum.
Oh he was so good. He could have won the league with us. Oh. Ohhhh
Could he bollocks
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Mate, the irony lol. If anything you’re the revisionist on Fabregas, going on like he was shit.
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I literally loved every minute Cesc played for us.
Even if parts of it made me sad (cup finals) I genuinely don’t think it was ever his fault.
He wasn’t shit but he wasn’t as good as some Arsenal fans say, either.
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Well that’s the majority’s opinion you’ve just got to deal with it Dave lol