Theo Walcott says Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard needed a ‘kick up the backside’ and may be concerned for his place following Eberechi Eze’s hat-trick heroics against Tottenham.
Odegaard has been out of action since October with a knee injury and was forced to sit out the Gunners’ memorable 4-1 victory over their bitter rivals on Sunday.
Eze continued his run in the team in place of his skipper and Arsenal’s £67.5m signing took his opportunity with both hands, scoring either side of half-time to give Mikel Arteta’s men a 3-0 lead following Leandro Trossard’s opener at the Emirates.
Richarlison gave Spurs a glimmer of hope with an audacious 35-yard lob over David Raya, but it was snuffed out in the 76th minute as Eze fired cooly beyond Guglielmo Vicario to restore the hosts’ three-goal cushion.
Eze’s stunning hat-trick – which helped Arsenal tighten their grip on top spot – was the first scored in a north London derby since the Premier League’s inception. Alan Sunderland was the last player to achieve the feat way back in 1978.
The moment of history was especially sweet for Arsenal supporters given Eze opted to turn down a move to Tottenham in order to join Arteta’s side in the summer transfer window.
‘I love him. He’s had patches of brilliance and you thought, “Ah, I need a little bit more, you’re playing slightly with the handbrake on”, maybe,’ ex-Arsenal forward Walcott said while reflecting on Eze’s performance on The Overlap US.
‘But what was really nice to see is when you have a bench celebrating that much as well.
‘They’re all on the same page, they are, however, deep down, Martin Odegaard will be thinking: “Oh, this is tough!”‘
Though Odegaard may be fearing for his spot in the side, Walcott is confident Eze’s rise to prominence will ultimately push the Norwegian to greater heights as a player.
‘Sometimes you become a better player when you’re injured sometimes, when you’re losing games,’ he added.
‘But at this moment in time, he’s becoming a worse player. And you can’t forget how good Odegaard is, and that’s the mad truth, but we’ll see a side of Odegaard we’ve not seen.
‘I think he’s needed this kick up the backside, I’ll be brutally honest.
‘It will be brilliant for him because it’s happened to Trossard and all of a sudden Trossard is someone different now so I think it’ll do him good.
‘Everyone is getting pushed right now at Arsenal now and we’re in a good place, a better place, an incredible place.’
Walcott looks back on his experiences in the north London derby with great fondness and will forever be remembered by fans of both teams for his cheeky 2-0 gesture from a stretcher during Arsenal’s FA Cup win in 2014.
‘It was always the fixture that I just loved playing,’ the former England international recalled.
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‘Even away, knowing the abuse I’d get but also knowing the abuse I could give back with my footballing ability. It kind of worked both ways.
‘There was my famous 2-0 thing that people love from my time. But I actually look at it very differently, I actually scored a lot of goals against Tottenham, I enjoyed some moments and some good performances.
‘However, for a fan, that memory was me just having a bit of banter on the stretcher when I did my ACL which I wasn’t aware of at the time.
‘That’s a memory for them and a memory that will live on. My knee didn’t feel great!’
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