Rio Ferdinand has claimed that Arsenal fans were ‘dissing’ Theo Walcott as he returned to the Emirates on Friday night to put some ‘respect’ on his name.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal dropped more points in the Premier League title race, this time to bottom-of-the-table Southampton, who recorded a 3-3 draw.
Theo Walcott scored Southampton’s second goal of the game after playing off the shoulder and sliding the ball past a shell-shocked Aaron Ramsdale.
The 34-year-old was rolling back the years, but for the Arsenal fans, at the wrong moment and the wrong time.
Walcott joined then-Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal as a fresh-faced teenager in 2006, before leaving for Everton for a £20 million fee in 2018 (BBC Sport) after over a decade in north London.
Whilst he wasn’t able to win the Premier League title in Arsenal colours, he did lift three FA Cups and Ferdinand thinks he silenced the Arsenal crowd on Friday, as he told FIVE.
“Southampton bottom of the table and Theo Walcott comes back and says ‘listen, I am going to slap up by old team again, they can’t deal with me’,” said Ferdinand.
“You lot were dissing Walcott. All of sudden, he comes back and says ‘listen, remember my name and respect what I did for the club. I am going to have to show you now’.
“He comes there and gives you a little taste. You lot scrape it back. Brilliant. Young team. Arteta is right. I love to see the spirit. But again, it’s another two points dropped.”
WALCOTT’S CAREER
A wonderkid that came through the same Southampton academy as Gareth Bale, many things were expected of Walcott.
During his career, he scored 80 Premier League goals and provided 63 assists from 391 games, including playing in the Champions League for over a decade and winning numerous FA Cups.
But fans expected more, perhaps to the level Bale reached, because that was Walcott’s potential as a teenager.
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