Since then, Arsenal have been having a stronghold in the third position in the Premier league. Now, they look certainties to finish in the third position with only two matches remaining, which means that Arsenal will definitely going to the group stages of the Champions League without any qualification phases to encounter. Theo Walcott recently got injured in the match against Chelsea a few weeks ago. The hamstring injury is set to keep him out for the rest of the season, although he is likely to be back for the Euro 2012, which will begin in a month.

“At times people just expect me to knock the ball and run but it is not as easy as you think to be honest. As soon as you start doing that, the defender knows what you are doing every time. You need to change it because you can’t just be one-dimensional. I am always going to be known for pace, I know that. But the next step is the finishing. I have a lot of assists this season but I don’t think I am ever going to lose that,” Walcott told the official website of Arsenal.

However, he refused to be substituted and wanted to carry on. It looked as if Theo Walcott wanted to see if he could run off the injury. However, after a few minutes after reappearing, Walcott suffered a major blow and had to be substituted. Now, Arsenal have confirmed that Walcott will be missing the remaining four matches of the Premier league season.

There is also a major problem for England, as he could well miss the initial group matches at the Euro 2012 if selected. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was furious after the match because Theo Walcott had the opportunity to come off when he first sensed the trouble.

This comes as a major blow for Arsenal just at the crucial time in the season because midfielders Jack Wilshere and Mikel Arteta have already been ruled out for the rest of the season.

Further, it looks as if Newcastle United might pull off a shock by overtaking Arsenal in the Premier league table following the 0-0 draw with Chelsea during the weekend, while Newcastle managed a splendid 3-0 win over Stoke City.

“It looks like a serious hamstring. I think now for him it will be tough to come back before the end of the season. It is usually 21 days [minimum]. He should be OK to play for England. First we assessed the hamstring. He wanted to go on and stay on the pitch. I think he should have gone off straight away because the second time it was a real hamstring [injury] ,” said Wenger. England are one of the favourites to win the tournament according to the latest euro 2012 betting odds.

Arsenal are currently in the third position in the table after having just overtaken Tottenham. Arsenal managed a 1-0 win over Everton in the midweek action, while Tottenham could only draw against Stoke city at home. Further, Tottenham will be facing a tough fixture in the form of Chelsea during the weekend, while Arsenal will be welcoming Aston Villa – a relatively easy fixture based upon the history – to the Emirates. Walcott was again influential in the match against Newcastle United recently when he provided the final minute cross for Thomas Vermaelen to head home.

“I think people forget about Theo because he is so long in the spotlight that people forget he is 23 years old and he is now getting to an age where you perform. It’s as simple as that. He develops well because he is intelligent and I feel tactically and technically tonight he played a complete game. We played recently against Tottenham, Liverpool, Newcastle, and at Sunderland who are difficult to beat,” Arsene Wenger said after the 2-1 victory over Newcastle United recently. Even though Arsenal have overtaken Tottenham in the race for the top three positions, they still have a long way to go before they secure the spot.

The Dutchman has been able to carry this scintillating form into 2012 as well. So far, Robin van Persie has scored an astonishing 34 goals in the league this season, thus making him an essential commodity for Arsenal in the race for the third position.

Robin van Persie has remained injury free this season and has played almost every match for Arsenal. This is a scenario that he would have wished in the previous seasons. Only last season, van Persie missed more than two months of action due to an injury. Now that the 28-year-old is behind his injury troubles, Theo Walcott is delighted because he reckons that van Persie is the best striker in the Premier league at the moment. Walcott has been criticised for his poor form earlier in the season, but he too has returned in spectacular fashion in recent weeks.

“When I was on the treatment bed alongside him in previous years it was such a shame to see so much talent wasted. He has made up for lost time, I am sure of that” Walcott told the Arsenal website. Because of Van Persie’s goals Arsenal are firm favourites to net a Champions League spot, according to up to date Premier League odds.

“You just give him anything and he will put it away – left foot, right foot and he has scored a couple of headers as well. Wayne Rooney is still several goals behind him and has had a fantastic season as well,” Walcott said after the Newcastle United match, in which van Persie scored his 33rd goal.

Even though Arsene Wenger has repeatedly said that the Champions League money is certainly not necessary for Arsenal at this moment because of their self-sufficient nature, an Arsenal fan will really question the ambition of the club at this moment in time. Arsenal went some way into repaying some of the faith of Arsene Wenger in the young players by beating Blackburn 7-1 recently.

Much has been expected of Theo Walcott since he signed from Southampton for £ 12 million. Even though he has not delivered to Arsenal in a huge way, this has been a breakthrough season for him in many ways. He was once again at his best in the match against Sunderland. It was never going to be easy to take on Sunderland, who come into the match against Arsenal as one of the form teams in the division. Yet, Arsenal managed to comfortably beat Sunderland at their home ground.

“There are so many world-class players in the dressing room, so it is disappointing when we come back from Bolton with a 0-0 draw where we had a lot of chances. It has just been one of those frustrating seasons. Hopefully a lot of those frustrations came out against Blackburn, where everybody stood up for themselves,” Theo Walcott said after the Blackburn match.

Arsenal have now moved into the fourth position in the table after Chelsea dropped points at home in the match against Manchester United. Chelsea could only draw 3-3 with Manchester United after having led the match 3-0. Arsenal ‘s chances of making it past AC Milan are slim according to the Champions League odds online. Good luck Arsenal!

The latest match in the Champions league against AC Milan, though, did not help his cause, as he was largely inefficient in the whole match. Arsenal were defeated 4-0 on the night and a large portion of the blame has fallen on Theo Walcott. As a result, there have been reports that Arsenal would finally considered offloading Theo Walcott in the summer in order to make room for new purchases. Without the lack of new signings, Arsenal have been on a constant decline since 2005.

“Certain young players haven’t done enough to justify the confidence that Arsene has in them. Walcott — somehow he’s going to have to reach the next stage. It’s been years that he’s been at the same level,” an Arsenal insider said after the humiliating 4-0 defeat at the hands of AC Milan in the first leg of the Champions League. Arsenal have also been eliminated out of the FA Cup after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Premier league club Sunderland. As a result, the seven-year wait for a trophy goes on.

Walcott, who joined the set up at Arsenal as a 16 year old in 2006 from Southampton, has undergone a sea change in his career, developing from a promising talent to one of the best wingers in the country and even made it to the England squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany, where England was knocked out by Portugal.

The French manager is keen to avoid another controversial departure like that of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas in order to avoid losing them for free at the end of their contracts and so, Wenger is eager to tie down Theo Walcott to a long term contract to ward off interest from the European giants.

However, it remains to be seen if the winger, who had a troubled beginning at Arsenal, will be able to ignore the overtures of the big clubs and stay at a club that has not won a trophy for the last 6 years.

According to the football experts, the only way Arsene Wenger can hope to retain his star midfielder is by making a few marquee signings but going by his latest transfer policy that seems to be a farfetched dream. With the club out of the Carling and FA Cups already, and a lot of points behind Manchester City in the League, their only hope of a trophy this year is in Europe, though the in-play Champions League betting odds of Arsenal winning shows that they have only a very slim chance of even getting to the Final, let alone winning it!

This lack of trophy chances is bound to affect Walcott’s decision. However, according to the agent of Theo Walcott, he is only thinking of his long term future at the club but as well known, the world of football is as crazy as the game and anything can happen at any time.

Robin van Persie has been in sensational form this calendar year and is very close to equalling the club record for the most number of goals scored in a year by Thierry Henry. So far, Robin van Persie has scored a sensational 33 goals from 32 matches in 2011, and is also very close to achieving the all-time set by Alan Shearer many years ago.

Initially, Theo Walcott was expected to be the natural successor to Thierry Henry at Arsenal given that he has been using the same number 14 shirt vacated by the Frenchman.

However, the England winger has admitted that Robin van Persie is more suited towards succeeding the efforts of the Frenchman at Emirates Stadium. Thierry Henry is regarded as one of the greatest players to have played for Arsenal during their illustrious history, so much so that the club recently unveiled a new bronze statue commemorating the player. Along with Thierry Henry, the club also announced the statues for Herbert Chapman and Tony Adams right before the Emirates Stadium. Now, Theo Walcott has said that Robin van Persie is the natural successor for Thierry Henry, even though he has been quite sensational in recent weeks for Arsenal.

“The way Robin is playing, he wants to be one of those legends as well. I’m just absolutely shocked. To see that go in was incredible. He’s a player in so much form, the goal was amazing and it’s just world class to see. He would say himself, he was in and out of the game. That’s the difference,” Theo Walcott said when asked about Robin van Persie. Theo Walcott has been important for supplying the ammunition for Robin van Persie.

In fact, they have beaten the best team in the Bundesliga so far – Bayern Munich this weekend. It puts them into a position of great strength as they take on Arsenal in the penultimate group match. However, Arsenal winger Theo Walcott says that Arsenal are very much looking forward to meeting Borussia Dortmund and extending their unbeaten run to 10 games. Robin van Persie has been very much the centre of attention for Arsenal in recent weeks, but the striker has credited his good run of form to the supply provided by Theo Walcott.

Theo Walcott, in turn, has heaped praise on Robin van Persie by saying that van Persie takes the pressure off every other player at Arsenal. Speaking ahead of the match against Borussia Dortmund, Theo Walcott said, “We are playing beautiful football at this moment in time. Robin up front makes our jobs so much easier. He’s one of the best strikers in the world right now. We can keep on winning.”

Borussia Dortmund should win the match against Arsenal in order to have any chance of progressing to the next round because Marseille are in the second place now.

Theo Walcott is still confident that Arsenal can fulfil his dreams and finish in the top 4 in the Premier League table this season. After a torrid start to the season, which culminated in an 8-2 thrashing by Manchester United, Arsenal have finally started to look like a football team that can challenge for the major honours. They currently lie in 6th in the table, but Walcott believes it’s just a matter of time before they find their way back into the top four, and maybe even higher!

Speaking after the Norwich game, which Arsenal won convincingly, Theo was in a confident mood. “We’ve said all season that the aim is to finish the League in one of the top four spots and qualify for the Champions League. We may have started poorly but it’s a long run in, like a marathon, and I’m confident that by the end of the race we can achieve that top 4 finish.”

Arsenal have some tough matches coming up, with Manchester City and Liverpool both due to play the Gunners over the next few weeks. When you couple that with the last two group stage matches of the Champions League (which are both must-win matches for Arsenal) you start to wonder whether Arsenal have the squad to cope with the pressures of playing at the very top – not many punters will be tempted to bet on Arsenal winning all those games…?

Arsenal’s chances depend heavily upon whether Robin van Persie is fit, according to Betfair’s ‘Lee Dixon Bets‘ column. Van Persie has been in scintillating form alongside Theo, scoring an impressive 13 league goals so far this season, and over 35 in this calendar year. With him in the side the Gunners somehow manage to find another dimension, but without him they seem to lack the verve, flair and confidence needed to break down their opponents.

Van Persie sat out the match against Norwich, but should be back for the Dortmund match in midweek. With him and Walcott linking up well so far this season, if they can keep the pair of them fit, Arsenal might just have a chance…