Brilliance Shown by Theo Walcott Against Chelsea Isn't Trustworthy in Long Run

A great day for Theo Walcott was highlighted by a fantastic goal that the Englishman scored, splitting two defenders with a nice move, and running on to hit the ball past Petr Cech from a tough angle.

On Saturday, Walcott was excellent, and made two beautiful passes to Gervinho and Robin van Persie respectively, but both of them were missed, despite being quite easy finishes.

In a 5-3 win against Chelsea, Walcott was one of Arsenal's top performers, and some of the talk following that match regards him.

But can we expect Walcott to emulate this type of performance again in the near future?

It is very unlikely.

The word to describe Walcott is "erratic".

It's very tough to predict whether things will go the 22-year-old's way. Every seven or eight games, Walcott plays extremely well -- as he did on Saturday -- but on the other days, he is either mediocre or downright awful.

The case of his touch and final ball are quite odd. On some days, his touch is sublime and can get past defenders with it, and his final ball is spot-on, whether it's a cross, pass or shot. But on other days, those things are inexplicably bad.

Lately, Walcott has been getting loads of criticism, and it's not completely undeserved, as he has been quite dismal in a few of his matches.

A name that is applied very often to Walcott is "one-trick pony". 

To be fair to his critics, it's partly true. It's correct to say that Theo's only move is to knock the ball past his marker and run on to it, but to say that this type of play is not effective is false. 

Often, he is the player that Arsenal need to be incisive; the man to slip behind the opponent's defenders. From that position, there's always the threat of being able to put the ball in the box, which sometimes does lead to goals.

But Walcott hasn't been doing that of late.

Not only does his touch often falter, but his "footballing IQ" isn't the best. Even on his better days, Walcott gets caught out in a position that he shouldn't have been in -- for example against Chelsea when Aaron Ramsey broke past the Blues' defense, but Walcott was between the 18 yard box and midfield.

Another reason that the Englishman won't be consistent in his brilliant play is the whole aspect of injuries.

Like many other players on Arsenal -- Robin van Persie, Abou Diaby, Kieran Gibbs and others -- Walcott is very injury prone. He is just very fragile. He stands at 5'9" and weighs only 150 pounds, and he is very easily knocked down. Also, some blows that he is on the receiving end of keep him out for months.

Last season, for example, Walcott started the season off magnificently, with a hat-trick in the second EPL match against Blackpool and other things of the sort. But in an international match against Switzerland, Walcott injured himself and was out for months (naturally Arsene Wenger was livid).

After that incident, he was never really the same again.

Another major point regards the squad. In recent weeks, Wenger has shown faith in Walcott, who has started eight out of ten Premier League matches this season.

Nonetheless, if Walcott's form starts to wither, le Professeur will be forced to replace him with Andrei Arshavin, Yossi Benayoun or even teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

What would be the implications of this switch in the Starting XI?

Simple.

Walcott loses playing time, condemns himself to being a substitute, scores less goals, loses a spot on Fabio Capello's English international team, fails to redeem and as a result his reputation takes a huge hit.

That's what the trajectory is right now.

Many are serious in saying that Walcott is getting better and better, but this is part of a pattern that has shown in recent times.

History tells us that this is all going to repeat itself and he is going to get better, then worse and so on.

But it's up to Theo Walcott to change that.

NOTE: As an Arsenal supporter, I hope that everything I said in this article doesn't come true, because Walcott can be fun to watch, and has the potential to be one of the biggest assets in the Gunners' squad.