Walcott desperate to put Champions League behind Arsenal

Theo Walcott is hoping to quickly put Arsenal’s Champions League humbling against Bayern Munich behind him with Saturday’s FA Cup quarter final against Lincoln City on the horizon.

The ten-man Gunners were hammered 5-1 by the German champions at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night to complete a 10-2 aggregate defeat – a record for an English side in the competition.

Walcott gave Arsenal faint hope of overturning a 5-1 deficit from the first leg by scoring the opening goal after 20 minutes, but that was buried following Laurent Koscielny’s red card after half-time, when the hosts collapsed.

But Arsene Wenger’s beleaguered side have the chance to raise morale as they face non-league opposition for the second round in a row in the cup when they welcome Lincoln.

Walcott said: “We should’ve been smart and just [opted for] damage limitation really. It’s just a big shame.

(Photo by Tolga Akmen/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

“People will be saying that we don’t care and stuff like this but obviously we do care. There’s loads of players who are very hurt, completely, in the dressing room.

“We’ve got Lincoln at the weekend where we’re massive favourites to win that game. We need to move on very quickly from this disappointment.

“We can’t say, ‘if this happened, or if that happened’. That’s the worst thing in football. It’s a good opportunity to go to Wembley and we need to take it.

“We’ve got a great opportunity there and then we need to work on the league position.”