Arsenal Player of the Month: December, with Culann Davies video

 

And the Ramsey monopoly is broken! Culann and I were in more or less instant agreement that this month, Arsenal’s best player has been Theo Walcott. Not that there weren’t other contenders – Bacary Sagna and Per Mertesacker were superbly consistent as usual, while Koscielny was immense as ever. Mesut Özil was also quietly excellent, scoring twice and playing a crucial part in several goals, as well as putting in one of his most impressive performances to date against West Ham.

But the award goes to Theo Walcott, for his decisiveness in the big moments. His season has followed the pattern of last campaign, where he struggled to get into the team early on in the season (for different reasons) before finding his way back into the side and scoring lots of goals around December and January time. What’s different now is that our form players have dropped off, and Theo is the one we’re now looking to.

It’s incredibly encouraging because previously he’s seemed like a confidence player who played well when others were on form but hid when we were having an off-day. Now he’s one of the leaders of the team, and, while he may not put in 10/10 performances, he comes up with the important moments for us. That’s apparent in Culann’s video – there are a few decent highlights from his month, but mostly they’re decisive goal contributions, and all teams need a player like that.

His contributions this month have all been of utmost importance – he brought us level against City (with an admittedly scuffed finish) before a superb take and finish put us back in the game again; obviously we lost the match, but he was a big part of why we were in it. He played a vital part in the draw against Everton, combining well with fellow substitute Tomas Rosicky to set up what looked like a late winner for Özil – although Gerard Deulofeu had other ideas. Then his goals against West Ham, which probably summed him up this month: effective, influential and capable of producing at decisive moments.

It’s so important for Arsenal to have Walcott in this kind of form now that Ramsey is injured, having already begun to tail off a little, while Olivier Giroud also isn’t firing as he was (although Walcott put his first goal in several games on a plate for him against Newcastle) and Mesut Özil and Santi Cazorla are yet to hit top form – the same goes for Jack Wilshere. Theo Walcott is producing when Arsenal need him most.

It’s also encouraging to see him use the ball more intelligently – his runs off the ball have always been clever, despite what Chris Waddle may think about his footballing brain, but he uses his body more wisely when in possession, shielding the ball and feinting to get past players, as you can see in Culann’s video. Everything seems to be coming to him more naturally now, which can only be a positive.

He may not beat five players in a row down the line when people shout “Run at him Theo!” (hey Dad) but, if you give him a bit of space, he’ll nip past you and whip in a devilish cross. He might even be able to get on the end of a cross, as he showed against West Ham. Arsenal had become a little predictable with playmakers out wide, so having Theo Walcott back and in form is proving a bit help in making them harder to deal with.