Theo Walcott: Arsenal can beat anyone after Bayern Munich victory

Walcott finds a way forward: The Arsenal striker finds a way past Xabi Alonso
BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images
James Benge22 October 2015

Theo Walcott believes an Arsenal side with confidence flowing can beat anyone after their win against Bayern Munich at the Emirates.

Just over a fortnight after the breathless attacking display of their 3-0 win against Manchester United Arsenal thrived in a different way against the Bundesliga champions. A defensive display supplemented by the countering threat of Walcott, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil saw Arsene Wenger’s side snatch a 2-0 win that kept their hopes of qualifying to the knockout rounds of the Champions League alive.

Walcott is convinced that their recent run of form has sent out a message to opponents at home and abroad, warning rivals that this Arsenal side is not to be taken lightly.

“If you beat Bayern you believe you can beat anyone,” he said. “We have been fantastic in the league – the two games before in the Champions League weren’t great – but the confidence is flowing through the team and you can just sense that.

Arsenal v Bayern Munich Player Ratings

1/22

“I think a lot of teams are starting to be a bit wary of that and that is what we want. We want to put out a message and the Bayern result can hopefully show that.

“It can’t just be a one-off, we have got to make it [Champions League qualification] right first. We need to keep on doing it, which we have been, to be fair to ourselves.”

The striker is convinced that the win over Bayern ranks among the best results of his nigh-on ten years at the club.

“Considering the circumstances of the last two games, I would have to put it up there.

“There was a lot of pressure on us, we knew we couldn’t lose but a win was a massive ask. If we continue like this you never know where it is going to take us.

“We were sloppy in those first two matches, we didn’t show our quality. We can’t change that at all and we just need to make it right. This was a good first stepping stone to getting through but it’s still a tough ask. We are proud but it won’t mean anything if we don’t make it right.”

  P W D L GD Points
Bayern Munich 3 2 0 1 6 6
Olympiacos 3 2 0 1 -1 6
Arsenal 3 1 0 2 0 3
Dinamo Zagreb 3 1 0 2 -5 3

Despite their win at the Emirates Arsenal are still third in Group F, though they lie just 3 points behind leaders Olympiacos and Bayern ahead of their trip to the Allianz.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in