Walcott spent 90 minutes last month discussing the art of attacking with Thierry Henry, the Arsenal goalscoring legend who was briefly training at London Colney. “It’s probably the best hour and a half I’ve ever had. I always listen to people but when it’s my hero I extra listen.”
Walcott has focused on such things as varying his movement when out wide, on “the right moment” for “coming off the line” and “not just making the same runs all the time”.
He has worked on being more selfish in the area. “If that means being greedy at the time you’ve got to do it,’’ he said. He is enjoying being used more centrally, a plea he made when discussions began about a new contract last year.
“Of course there is nerves and a lot of pressure in any game but when you are demanding to play in a certain role you need to perform,” he added. “Hopefully and thankfully it has gone well so far.”
He said the last three weeks before his contract signing “was probably the hardest. It was on my mind too much.
“My dad was always on the phone. My fiancée Mel as well. At times it was putting me off my game.
“Against Swansea, I had a lot of chances I missed, scuffed quite a lot. It was too much to bear, from the summer onwards. Luckily I coped with it all.
"But it could have swung the other way and been chaos. It shows strong character there. It shows I’ve got some fantastic people around me as well.
“I believe in the team. That’s the main thing. This team should be right at the top. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to commit my future here; we’ve got great potential but we just need to show it more often.”
