Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has admitted some of the Gunners' performances have 'not been good enough' this season.
Arsenal winger happy to get back on track against Blackburn
Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has admitted some of the Gunners' performances have 'not been good enough' this season.
The Gunners claimed their first league win of 2012 when they demolished 10-man Blackburn 7-1 at the Emirates on Saturday to end a miserable run of one point from four games.
Walcott feels it was about time the Arsenal players got it right after a frustrating spell in which manager Arsene Wenger has come under fire, although they remain just three points adrift of Chelsea in fourth.
"The boss always takes a lot of stick from everyone criticising him, but us players need to look up to him because he's been taking it all," the England international said.
Frustrating
"We are the ones who go out there and put out the performances and sometimes they have not been good enough."
Walcott added on the club's
official website: "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."
Walcott set up the opener for captain Robin van Persie inside two minutes, then laid on a second for his skipper, who would eventually complete a hat-trick, before a mazy run ended with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scoring number five at the start of the second half.
Assists
The performances of 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain have led to calls for him to be fast-tracked into the senior England side for the upcoming friendly against Holland, although the former Southampton trainee is wary of things moving too quickly.
Walcott, who was a controversial selection for the 2006 World Cup when still a teenager, has often found himself criticised for a lack of end product - something against which his captain launched a fierce defence at the weekend.
The 22-year-old, however, sees the bigger picture.
He said: "One of my main jobs as a winger is to get assists. The goals are a secondary thing.
"Some of them against Blackburn were just tap-ins so it was like a goal really. I hope it made Robin's job easy."
