Winger urges new signing after wonder-goals
Arsenal forward Theo Walcott has urged new signing Granit Xhaka not to listen to fans and not to shoot too often ahead of the Gunners’ Champions League game at home to Basel.
Xhaka’s first 2 goals of his Arsenal careers have been crackers, against Hull and Nottingham Forest, and fans have a desire to see more from the midfielder, who arrived in the summer for £34million.
Walcott told BT Sport: “Losing Francis will be a big miss but having Xhaka to come in, obviously, the fans encourage him to shoot but we’re just telling him not to shoot too often!”
Walcott is aware that Wednesday’s game will be a ‘family feud’ between Granit and his sibling Taulant – an FC Basel defender – and says that the Gunners must be alert from the off and play sharp football in the early stages.
“It’s not going to be easy, the first 20 minutes are key,” he added. “It’s important to see how we start the game but the intensity needs to be there.
“Once we do that, the whole home support as well – which was fantastic at the weekend – that’s only going to spur the players on even more.
Playing at the Emirates they’ve got nothing to lose, they’re not going there expecting to get a result so we need to make sure it stays that way. We had a good start with the PSG game, so it should be good.”
