Ox is frustrating because his final ball is poor too often. But he does take defenders on and make life difficult for them. For all his pace, when was the last time you saw Theo run at anybody. Defenders hate guys with pace running at them (ask Monreal) yet Theo does rarely does it.

I’d like to see Ox get a run of games to see what he can do.

Hard to argue against such “sage” remarks. (Nicely done).With Walcott my focus is on his comparative contributions. I still think he is very talented, but in the last couple of games he has come off the boil.

“The facts are that Walcott is playing qualitatively better this season than ever. He is working harder and smarter. He is pressing like we have never seen him do it. He is combining with his playing partners on and off the ball. Its not just the goals. They are the product of a reinvigorated and better Walcott.”

Who said that, a couple of months ago? Wind both rather extreme reactions back in a bit, marry them together, and you have a realistic view of Walcott: useful, not brilliant.

That said, where you’re going wrong at the moment is in not recognising the ways Walcott can contribute without appearing to do much. In matches where teams concentrate on suppressing Walcott and/or dealing with his pace, others get more freedom to do their thing; when Walcott isn’t kept quiet, he gets the goals/assists.

See my reply below to Jay Salhi.

This weekend I have watched Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal and am currently watching a tape of Liverpool. If you compare the most forward four on each team our #9 and #10 are as good or better as those of the other teams. But our wingers are not as good as the competition. Walcott is almost never involved in the play build up. He is not aggressive enough in tracking back. Notwithstanding Ox’s goal, he and Iwobi have not been sufficiently excellent as finishers.
Objectively, I would rate the front four of Arsenal behind those other three clubs, because of the wingers.

How about instead of knee-jerking one way and then the other based on how many goals he’s scored lately, we accept that Theo is quite good, not brilliant? He didn’t do anything wrong against WHam, he just didn’t have a great game.

Er, whut? Alexis got a hat-trick, but this was far from one of his better days. He was pretty poor in the first half, and repeatedly lost the ball throughout the match.

Walcott has been poor for a while now. His energy level and work rate have dropped considerably and whoever is playing on the opposite wing, be it Ox or Iwobi is always much more involved in the game than Theo. On top of that, with all the long balls we are playing, it is always Sanchez or Ozil chasing them down and never Theo, our fastest forward.

It is time to sit Theo and replace him with Ox.