Theo Walcott: Should He Be Partnering Up Front with Robin Van Persie at Arsenal?

Speaking with Sky Sports, Arsenal's Theo Walcott recently reiterated his desire to play up front as a striker for the Gunners:

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"I'm not a natural winger," he said. "I was bought as a striker.

"If you are on the flanks you have to make the runs anyway. You can't stay quiet on the wings and Arsenal are not the sort of team who will cross it anyway, we try and walk it into the net.

"I am not demanding anything. I will play anywhere for club and country.

"But hopefully if I keep on putting it out there with the manager, it will come. I would love it if it happens."

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The 16-year-old who generated so much excitement with his early goalscoring feats for Southampton may have a point. Whilst improving his wing play in recent seasons, you can’t help but feel Arsenal simply aren’t getting the most out of him.

But this begs the question: Should the Gunners be going back to a 4-4-2 formation with two outright strikers at the helm? A formation that, after all, brought Wenger so much success in the early years.

The most obvious defense of the current 4-2-3-1 setup is the type of players Wenger has at his disposal—an observation made by the manager himself this week when briefly reverting back to 4-4-2 against Shrewsbury Town. Alex Oxlade-Chamberalain and Yossi Benayoun are, he claimed, more classic midfield players, as opposed to Gervinho or Andrey Arshavin for example, and were therefore able to operate as part of a four-man midfield without unbalancing the team.

The great 4-4-2 sides of the past benefited greatly from having defensive-minded players, such as Patrick Vieira and Gilberto scrapping in the middle of the park. Out of the current first team crop, the most likely candidates for these positions would be Alex Song and Jack Wilshere; both capable of breaking up the play and turning defence into attack.

The trouble would be fitting everyone else into the remaining wing and forward positions. 

Club captain Robin van Persie could be partnered by Theo Walcott up front, but suddenly players such as Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey are either going to be squeezed into wide positions or relegated to the bench. And, indeed, what of the aforementioned Gervinho and Arshavin?

A second solution would be to play Walcott up front within the current formation and have van Persie reprise his role for the Dutch national team out on the right. This would enable Arteta, Wilshere and Song to occupy their preferred roles in the middle and Gervinho to offer further movement and pace from the left.

So, where the Oranje have Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong sitting behind van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar up top, Arsenal could be looking at Wilshere and Song sitting behind van Persie, Arteta and Gervinho, with Walcott in his favoured role up front.

The one obvious drawback of this scenario would be Walcott’s rather diminutive frame and consequent inability to win much in the way of long balls from the back. Yet, I hear you say, when was the last time Arsenal actually successfully managed one of those...?