Arsenal forward Theo Walcott believes that the side can beat anyone that comes up against them as long as they play with the intensity that they played with last night during their 3-0 victory in Turkey against Fenerbache in their Champions League first-leg qualifier.
The Gunners stormed to a 3-0 win with goals coming in the second-half from Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey and a Olivier Giroud penalty.
The three away goals gives Arsenal a comfortable lead to take back to the Emirates Stadium for the home-leg, which takes place next Tuesday.
After the game Walcott admitted that the players were gutted after losing to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season, but the Englishman believes they bounced back well last night.
“It was very important [to win] after such a disappointing start to the Premier League,” he told Arsenal Player.
“We dominated the game tonight, we knew what we had to do. There was a lot of pressure on us as well and we’re happy we got that clean sheet, which was important.
“As players we don’t take any notice of that [criticism]. We know the best person to listen to, and our best critic, is the manager. We knew it [the Villa game] was very disappointing and we needed to bounce back from it. I think tonight was the perfect result and we can have a nice enjoyable journey home now.”
As soon as the first goal went in from left-back, Gibbs, you could see how much it meant to all the players as they rushed to celebrate with the defender, and Walcott believes the team spirit has come from their pre-season tour of Asia.
“You can see the bonding that took place on tour,” he said. “We always had a great laugh together. It’s a tight group we’ve got here, we’re always together, we’ve always been behind each other.
“We work hard for each other and that’s the most important thing – if everyone works hard for each other we can get the results.
“I think at the weekend that probably wasn’t the case, and we knew how disappointing it was. You don’t want to start a season like that but, like I said, that’s out of the window now. We’ve forgotten about that and we’re concentrating on Fulham. And if we perform like that, with that intensity, we can beat anyone.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
