• Premier League

Walcott excited about new Arsenal recruits

ESPNsoccernet staff
September 5, 2011
Theo Walcott is a fan of Arsenal's signings © Getty Images
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Theo Walcott says he watched on with a mixture of shock and delight while Arsenal made a mad dash for new recruits on deadline day.

Walcott will have five new team-mates to meet in Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Andre Santos, Park Chu-young and Per Mertesacker, who between them set Arsene Wenger back £40 million, when the team returns on Wednesday afternoon

"I have never seen Arsenal do that in all the years I have been there." said Walcott.

"A lot of teams leave it until last minute so it was interesting to see. We got rid of two great players but we've brought a few in and I look forward to seeing them on Wednesday.

"New faces tend to get everyone bubbling. We all have to lift our spirits and hopefully those new signings will do the job.

"They've had so much experience. Arteta in particular is a fantastic player. He can definitely spot a pass and I am looking forward to playing with him."

The trigger for Wenger's scattergun approach appeared to be that record 8-2 humiliation at Manchester United.

Although the Gunners chief felt he had enough quality in his side to ride out the turbulence created by Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri leaving for Barcelona and Manchester City respectively, that result suggested otherwise.

And though he was without eight players through injury and suspension, with the likes of Jack Wilshere - now out for up to three months - struggling to recover and only one point collected from Arsenal's opening three games, action had to be taken.

"I'm not worried about the future at Arsenal at all," said Walcott.

However, he did concede the visitors' dressing room was a depressing place to be at Old Trafford, as the Gunners tried to analyse their worst defeat since the 19th century.

"It was completely dead afterwards," Walcott revealed. "It is hard to recover from that result and it could hurt a lot of players. But you can't do anything about it. You can't sulk.

There are younger players you have to help out. We had Alex Chamberlain making his debut in that game. Carl Jenkinson got sent off.

"Arsenal are a big club. You have to be able to react to those sort of moments.

"There's no point sitting and sulking about what you could have done better. The better team won on the day. A lot of people dropped their heads as soon as that fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth goals went in.

"I wouldn't say we gave up. We tried our best. But Manchester United were very strong and scored some great goals.

"Maybe the organisation wasn't quite there either. We are just going to have to catch up in our results."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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