Theo Walcott was something of a surprise inclusion in Sam Allardyce’s first England squad, but Arsène Wenger insists the winger can repay the new England boss’ faith.

Walcott was left out of the Roy Hodgson’s squad for Euro 2016, but is included by Allardyce, who looks keen on playing with greater width than his predecessor.

Now 27, Walcott has played every minute of Arsenal’s season so far, including the full 90 in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Watford, their first success of the campaign.

And according to Wenger, Walcott is going to have a big season provided he can avoid the injury bug which has hampered his career since he first made his name as a teenager a decade ago.

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“I said before the season started that we will get a different Theo Walcott this year,” said Wenger.

“I hope he has no setback because he is an intelligent player, he is focused and has a great desire to prove his critics wrong and he’s on a good way.

“I am very pleased, I think we had an excellent first half at Watford,” he added. “We cannot maintain it completely physically yet for 90 minutes but overall I could see there was some potential in the team, some fluency.

“We created chances and there was great movement. Overall I am very pleased with our first-half performance. Defensively we had a good game as well and I believe when everybody is on board physically for 90 minutes, we have a strong team.”

It doesn’t take long for the doubters to emerge when strikers fail to score, but Claudio Ranieri insists he had no concerns over Jamie Vardy.

The questions were already starting to be asked of the England striker after two games of the new campaign, where he had looked far from the man who lit up the Premier League last season during the Foxes’ title win.

But Vardy fired in off the post against Swansea City on Saturday to set Leicester on their way to a 2-1 victory, with Wes Morgan volleying the second and Riyad Mahrez missing a penalty.

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Ranieri said: “Of course, some seasons, it is a little more and some a little less but never, never the goalscorer forget the way to goal.

“Of course it is important to score a goal for the strikers, because it is their life.

“For me the most important thing was the performance and Jamie pressed a lot with his team-mates.”

“The first half was outstanding for us,” Ranieri continued.

“We had to score a little, one more goal in the first half perhaps, but it is good.

“The second half we started very well and scored a second goal. Afterwards we missed a penalty and maybe the opponent get more confident and we complicated a little our life.

“In the end it was a tough match. The rain was unbelievable. It was like water polo.

“But it was good, three points and a first victory for us, it was good. I am very happy.”

Aged just 18, Burnley’s Aiden O’Neill can already boast playing against Premier League giants such as Liverpool and Chelsea, and now he is determined to push on and become a household name in his native Australia.

The Brisbane-born midfielder has been a part of the Turf Moor setup since youth level, signing his first professional deal for the then Championship side in January having been granted international clearance.

And the teenager has already had a taste of Premier League action, as a substitute in the Clarets’ 2-0 win over Liverpool and the 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, while also playing 120 minutes against Accrington Stanley in the EFL Cup last week.

With those experiences behind him, O’Neill is looking to blossom and make the most of the football-loving support back home, while also feeding off the experiences of manager Sean Dyche.

O’Neill has already had Stamford Bridge experience (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)

“It’s been a very good week for me, sort of unexpectedly, and at a young age to play two Premier League games and be involved in the Accrington Stanley game is a pleasure,” he said.

“The Premier League is massive in Australia, everyone stays up really late to watch it and they’ll have all watched me against Chelsea which is great. All the players are massive names over there, I’m not quite there yet but hopefully I will be soon.

“I want to be involved in every game and every minute of this season to try and keep Burnley up.

“When I’m playing I don’t even realise it’s the Premier League and the crowds are that big, I just do everything I can do to help the team and try to improve.”

There may be a break of two weeks in club action coming up but Santi Cazorla’s attention is already on Arsenal’s match with Southampton.

Cazorla played a pivotal role in the Gunners’ 3-1 victory over Watford on Saturday, not only scoring the opener from the penalty spot but also starring at Vicarage Road.

The 31-year-old is one of the high-profile absentees left out of the Spain squad by new boss Julen Lopetegui – along with Cesc Fabregas and club-mate Hector Bellerin.

But Cazorla’s mind is already on Arsenal’s next match against the Saints at the Emirates, despite it not taking place until September 10.

(Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Cazorla said: “Yes [the spirit is good] because after one point in two games we needed to win. So we are happy now, it’s confidence for the team.

“Now we have to rest a week, some players play with national teams and after that we have to think about Southampton at home and we need to win at home.”

Another player to star against Watford was new signing Granit Xhaka and Cazorla added: “I feel [Xhaka played] very well. He’s a great player.

“We have a lot of players in this position, great players like [Francis] Coquelin, [Mohamed] Elneny and Jack Wilshere.

“So it’s very important to play together and we are happy to play with him [Xhaka].”

Stoke City find themselves bottom of the Premier League after one point from a possible nine so far but Shay Given has assured fans there is nothing to worry about.

The Potters kicked off their campaign with a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough but since then they have endured a 4-1 home defeat to Manchester City and a 1-0 loss at Everton.

Mark Hughes’ troops could consider themselves hard done by on Saturday afternoon though as they lost to a debatable penalty, which referee Michael Oliver awarded after adjudging Phil Bardsley to have either shoved or tripped Ashley Williams at a corner.

(Photo by James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)

And just to make things worse for Stoke, the resulting spot-kick only went in after it rebounded off the back of Given’s header after Leighton Baines’ effort was pushed on to the post.

“We’re only three games in, two of which have been away and the home game being against Manchester City,” said Given, who has started every game so far this season due to injury due to Jack Butland.

“It’s been a tough start but we’ve got a couple of weeks’ break now because of the international break and we’ve got to regroup and go again.

“We’ve got a game coming up against Tottenham, which is another tough one, but there are certainly positives to take into it from the Everton game.”

Walter Mazzarri found plenty of positives to take in defeat to Arsenal after his half-time rant saw a much improved second-half showing from Watford.

First-half goals from Santi Cazorla (penalty), Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil did the damage at Vicarage Road on Saturday for the Gunners.

But the Hornets – still searching for their first win of the season after three Premier League games – responded well after the interval.

Roberto Pereyra’s strike on debut was the highlight and Mazzarri insists his side will take plenty of confidence into their next game despite the loss.

“Yes it was very important [second-half response]. I’m very happy and we even had the opportunity to see many of the new players,” he said.

(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

“All the team reacted very well and I’m very happy with the way we played in the second half.

“I cannot really say [half-time team talk] because I said many things but it means the players heard what I said and they went out in the second half with a different attitude.”

Eric Dier is used to putting his versatility to the test, and after taking up his latest position at right-back, the 22-year-old believes it’s that adaptability which will stand Spurs in good stead.

Predominantly a defensive midfielder, Dier is also capable of operating at centre-back, but found himself on the right side of defence after Kyle Walker was forced off during their 1-1 draw with Liverpool at White Hart Lane.

It was a move which forced a frantic reshuffle in the hosts’ line-up, with Vincent Janssen coming on and Harry Kane and Dele Alli also dropping back to deeper positions.

And rather than be perturbed by the reshuffle, Dier feels the flexible nature of Mauricio Pochettino and his side could be important as the season progresses.

(Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

“Losing Kyle was a big blow because him and Danny are massive to the way we want to play and go forward,” he said.

“It was a big loss but I think we dealt with it well. I try my best in that position and try my best to get forward. You’ve just got to be ready because these things happen in football, you’ve got to be ready for all sorts of situations on the pitch and I think our squad is very good like that.

“We have players who can adapt to many different positions and the manager has prepared us for that as well.”

Josh King admitted to mixed emotions after opening his Bournemouth account for the season but then seeing the Cherries pegged back in the last minute.

King’s volley looked like it had secured Bournemouth’s first win of the Premier League season against Crystal Palace but Scott Dann equalised in the 90^th minute at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

And after sharing the spoils – Norwegian international King did not know whether to laugh or cry.

The 25-year-old said: “I thought we did well in the first half.

“They had a lot of chances, some that were cleared off the line, but of course it’s tough when you concede a goal in the 90th minute.

(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

“It’s good to get my first goal of the season. I took it well. I just hit it and it went into the far corner, so I am happy with that.

“Obviously you are always going to look back and think that we could have picked up another goal, but the game has gone now and we have to make do with one point.”

Hull City midfielder Robert Snodgrass still intends to be part of the Scotland squad for next week’s World Cup qualifier against Malta, despite limping off in the Tigers’ 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.

Snodgrass had to be substituted at half-time at the KCOM Stadium after injuring his leg colliding with a goalpost.

He was forced to watch on from the sidelines as Marcus Rashford’s injury-time winner ended Hull’s unbeaten start to the season, but the 28-year-old remains upbeat about his chances of pulling on the Scotland jersey in Malta on Sunday.

“Gutted had [sic] to go off, but in future I can’t tackle goalposts there is only one winner, and gutted for the lads they gave everything,” he wrote on Instagram.

“See how the quad is over the next few days but hope to be ok for the international duty.”

(Photo by Alex Morton/Getty Images)

His injury comes days after Snodgrass revealed he is keen to take over the Scotland captaincy after Scott Brown’s decision to retire from the international squad.

Snodgrass has 17 international caps to his name, but missed out on Scotland’s unsuccessful Euro 2016 qualification campaign because of injury.

Not even Scott Dann himself would have expected to top Crystal Palace’s goal-scoring charts last term, but having broken his duck in the new campaign, the central defender is desperate to make goals a habit once again.

The 29-year-old scored five times in the Premier League last season, the same as Connor Wickham, Yannick Bolasie and Yohan Cabaye, but hadn’t found the back of the net since February until he popped up for the vital stoppage-time equaliser against Bournemouth – the first goal of Palace’s Premier League campaign.

But rather than just being content with his haul so far, Dann, who also scored against Eddie Howe’s side in last season’s equivalent fixture – was relieved to see that his prowess in the box was not just a one-season hit.

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

“It was nice to see one finally go in, and it was an important one. We needed to put a point on the board today to get our season going and hopefully we can now,” he said.

“The fans gave us a bit of a lift as well; we wanted to get something out of the game and kept going and that was down to them and the way they supported us, so it’s a big thank you to them as well.”

Dann added: “We thought it was never going to come in the end, we had so many chances in that second half and it didn’t seem as though it was going to go in.”