Walcott Believes Arsenal Can Beat Spurs to Third in League

Arsenal forward Theo Walcott says the Gunners are high on confidence after their recent 2-1 league win over Newcastle and are looking forward to overtaking Tottenham, who are currently in third place in the Premier League, according to a goal.com report.

The Gunners, who are only a point behind the Spurs, have had a very inconsistent season and will be trying to at least claim third... and automatic qualification for the Champions League next season.

Arsene Wenger's men have had a tough time so far this season. They began with a mentally and physically straining two-leg win over Italian club Udinese (3-1 on aggregate) in the Champions League, in August. They were then subjected to a crushing 2-8 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in their very next fixture.

However, Walcott, who scored twice in the Gunner's 5-2 comeback win against Spurs, believes his team, despite having an unpredictable season, will rise to the challenge.

"It's really important and hopefully we finish above them as well. That is an even bigger bonus, for the fans especially. It will be a very good year I think, definitely," The Guardian quoted the 22-year-old midfielder as saying.

"Football is a funny game, it is always up or down. The fans are entitled to their opinions but I just wanted to score those two goals [against Tottenham] for them, to be honest. It's been an up and down season but they are passionate, just like us. We try and play well every game but if it's not happening, then you just have to try and forget about that," he added.

Walcott added his team should concentrate on their performance rather than paying attention to how well or badly Spurs played and should pay no attention to the fact that their rivals have suffered three back-to-back league defeats.

"In the Tottenham game, I did and since then I've just been expressing myself. I hope the Tottenham game can be season-defining. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, we have a lot of tough games and so do Tottenham. But we don't need to concentrate on them, we need to concentrate on ourselves. As players, when we were 2-0 down against Tottenham, we always believed we could come back. It was just an unbelievable game. We are only one point behind Tottenham and nobody would have thought that a couple of months ago. It just shows how strong we are," he further added.

Arsenal, who have now won five consecutive games, will be next playing against Everton on 21 March.