Southampton: Walcott comments on Arsenal after scoring against them

Southampton forward Theo Walcott has commented on the performances of his current side and his former side Arsenal after their 1-1 draw on Wednesday evening.

Walcott scored to put Saints into a first-half lead at the Emirates Stadium and chose to celebrate despite spending 12 years as a Gunners player.

A fightback in the second period from Arsenal saw Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalise, but the hosts had to defend well to hold onto a point after having Gabriel sent off with 28 minutes remaining.

After the match, Walcott confirmed how he saw the events unfold and – speaking to the media – said:

"“I felt a lot of fear in Arsenal tonight, to be honest. They’re going through a very difficult time – credit to them they got the result tonight.“But it shows how far we’ve come that we’re very disappointed to come away without the three points. We were going into this game with so much confidence, arrogance at times.”"

There is no doubting that playing in this game will have given Walcott a real sense of how things have changed for these two clubs and, indeed, for himself.

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It was said that the former England international would mainly be playing a role from the Saints bench when he joined on-loan from Everton. However, that has certainly not been the case.

He has started the eight Premier League matches that he was eligible to play in and has contributed with two goals and two assists. He has also been keeping other Saints players out of the team recently whilst continuing to prove doubters wrong.

In terms of the situation of Arsenal and Saints, things could not be more different to the experiences that Walcott has had previously.

His time at Arsenal saw him and his teammates consistently pushing towards the top of the Premier League table and also having success in the FA Cup over multiple seasons.

When he broke through at Saints, they had just been relegated to the Championship and were on a downward spiral towards League One. At least for now, they are the ones battling at the top of the top-flight as Arsenal struggle in a period of transition.

Keep up this form too and we could be seeing Theo permanently in a Saints shirt for a few more years yet.