10 Theo Walcott Performances That Show Why Arsenal Must Keep Him

This season has cast plenty of doubt over whether Walcott has returned from his long injury lay-off still able to perform on the same level. Making his first start in two months in the final game of the Premier League season, however, Walcott did his best to prove the doubters wrong.

Always with a strong record of scoring early goals, Walcott struck a beautiful shot across West Brom keeper Boaz Myhill to open the scoring after four minutes. Within just over half an hour he had added two more to take Arsenal into the cup final on a high.

While his current strike rate may not initially look great, Walcott has scored in four of the six games that he has started this season, with six goals in total. Most of his other appearances have been brief cameos.

In fact with just over 660 minutes of football in total, he has scored on average roughly every 110 minutes this year. (In comparison Thierry Henry had a strike rate of a goal every 122 minutes across his Arsenal career).

Back to full fitness, still just 26 and potentially about to enter the prime of his career, Walcott seems a player well worth keeping if he can produce performances like this even a fraction of the time.