Theo Walcott Has Been the Big Loser in Arsenal's Fine Run

Remember Theo Walcott?

The man who has been so ubiquitous during Arsenal's last few seasons has been completely incognito for over a month. After scoring against Marseille on September 18, Walcott picked up a nasty-looking hamstring injury and has been missing ever since.

Sitting on the sidelines and watching his teammates play is quite an unfamiliar feeling for Walcott. Despite constantly sprinting in his role as Arsenal's speedy wing threat, he has remained relatively unscathed during the last couple seasons.

And whenever he's fit, he plays.

During the last two seasons, Walcott has appeared 89 times for considerably different Arsenal teams. Both when Robin van Persie was running the show and after Arsene Wenger constructed a more balanced side, Walcott was a mainstay on the right wing.

It does not take a tremendous amount of analysis to explain why.

Arsenal have no other player like Walcott. Like Per Mertesacker, although for completely different reasons, he plays in almost every significant game when he is fit. No other player on the payroll is as fast as Walcott, who gives the Gunners a potent counterattacking weapon.

He has also recently developed into a goal poacher. The recent metamorphoses of Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey make it easy to forget that Walcott was Arsenal's top goalscorer last season.

Yet the Gunners have played their best football in years without him.

Wenger has had to make some tactical adjustments to compensate for the loss of his only true right winger, but the team has actually undergone a positive tactual evolution in Walcott's absence.

Most importantly, his injury has afforded Wenger a hatch through which he can escape his midfield selection problem. 

How does he choose between Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla?

Answer: He mostly doesn't.

Instead, Wenger lets Arteta and Flamini anchor the midfield, puts Ozil at the tip, shoves Cazorla to the left wing and pushes either Ramsey or Wilshere to the right. Each player's specific role can change on a game-by-game basis, but the point is that there is not one winger in this formation.

Somewhat surprisingly, the arrangement has coincided with Arsenal's most encouraging spell in years. This is almost certainly due to the quality of the players Wenger is toying with rather than their intrinsic ability to play in the positions they are being asked to occupy. But their abilities are such that they are more versatile by definition.

Arsenal have been able to play exquisite football because the starting lineups have been composed of technical masters who look to tap the ball around the pitch rather than run directly at the defense. That is Wenger's footballing philosophy exemplified.

And that is terrible news for Theo Walcott.

Walcott plays in the exact opposite way, and now the team has shown it can win without his skill set. Meanwhile, fans have largely forgotten about him, and his teammates have learned to play in a system that excludes him.

Of course, all this is not to say that Walcott will be sold or completely marginalized any time soon. Unlike other players who have fallen victim to this natural footballing cycle of bad luck and irrelevance, Walcott's unique talent provides him a special advantage.

Arsenal have shown that they can succeed without it, but Wenger will surely restore Walcott to the team when Walcott is fully fit to add a spark. It should be noted that the Englishman will be returning to teammates with whom he is totally familiar—Mesut Ozil is the only player who is relatively new.

Yet Walcott still has all his work ahead of him.

If he could have excelled with the rest of the team during their excellent spell of form in the Premier League, he would have reaffirmed his value to the side after failing to score during his first six appearances.

To quite literally add insult to injury, Walcott damaged his hamstring immediately after scoring his very first goal of the season against Marseille.

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