Gunners star Walcott doesn’t listen to criticsm

For whatever reason, Theo Walcott tends to attract more criticism than most – but the Arsenal star claims it is simply water off a duck’s back.

Walcott, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and the Gunners as a whole have all been recipients of plenty of disparagement in recent weeks after a run of four defeats in six games left them seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester City in the Premier League table.

But the north Londoners responded in style on Wednesday evening as the much-maligned Mesut Ozil, Walcott and Olivier Giroud all netted in a convincing 3-0 win over West Ham to climb right back into the race for the Champions League.

Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

And the flying forward insists he has long since blocked out any negativity from external sources.

“Criticism – I don’t even bother looking at it,” said Walcott. “I only listen to people I want to listen to. Who are they? The manager and the people at this club – that’s all I care about.

“I don’t mind people talking; they can talk and it doesn’t bother me at all.

“We got the win against West Ham and that is all that matters. We move on now to Crystal Palace on Monday night.

“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We know that we should be doing better and we’ve just got to remember how good we are.

“That scoreline against West Ham will show that we’re ready for a fight and that we’ll go all the way until it ends.”