Arsenal's Theo Walcott 'needs to relax' because he still has a lot to prove, says Roy Keane

Standard Sport29 September 2016

Roy Keane says Arsenal's Theo Walcott still has a lot to do over the coming months to prove he can be a consistent threat to defences this season.

Walcott has enjoyed a stunning start to the campaign and was unplayable for 45 minutes on Wednesday, scoring both goals in his side's 2-0 victory over FC Basel as the Gunners went joint top of Champions League Group A.

But Keane has urged the England international to remain grounded after he took his tally to five in seven starts for Arsenal across all competitions.

"It’s took him a while to get settled, hasn’t it?" Keane told ITV Sport.

"Listen, he’s had a good week, the guy needs to relax, try playing over the next seven, eight or nine months when the real big crunch games come and you’re on about looking at certain players for Arsenal.

"Tonight was a lovely game for Arsenal, when they have that much possession they are great to watch, they could have scored seven, eight, nine goals easily.

"But the crunch games are coming up over the next few months when the cold nights come on, we’ll see maybe half the Arsenal players with gloves on.

Arsenal vs FC Basel

1/18

"So I wouldn’t be getting carried away with Walcott. He’s got a lot to do. Lovely goals tonight, simplicity, his movement, finishing – but he’s got to do it over the next year or two."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in