Theo Walcott claims Arsenal are the ‘best team in the Premier League’ and even ‘way better’ than Manchester City.
Walcott was part of the Southampton side that held Arsenal to a 3-3 draw on Friday at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners dropped points from leading positions against Liverpool and West Ham before the visit of Saints and their drop in form continued as Ruben Selles’ side took the lead after just 28 seconds.
Aaron Ramsdale was at fault for the second fastest Premier League goal of the campaign as the Arsenal keeper had a pass intercepted by Carlos Alcaraz, who then rifled a shot into the far corner.
Southampton doubled their lead on 14 minutes when former Arsenal player Walcott latched onto a through ball and placed the ball beyond Ramsdale.
Arsenal halved the deficit through Gabriel Martinelli but were faced with another mountain when Duje Caleta-Car headed in from a rare Southampton attack in the second half of the match.
Arsenal’s title hopes appeared to be crumbling but Odegaard and Bukayo Saka both scored late goals to rescue a point.
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Southampton were thumped 4-1 by Man City two weeks ago but Walcott feels Arsenal are the ‘better’ side and ‘hopes’ they go on to lift the title.
Speaking after the 3-3 draw, Walcott told NBC Sports: ‘Arsenal are just incredible. We played Man City the other week and I thought Arsenal were way better than them.
‘That’s how I see Arsenal at the moment. We can take a lot of positives from this game because they [Arsenal] are the best team in this league at this moment in time.’
‘My son’s going to be really disappointed that I didn’t celebrate but I just couldn’t,’ the 34-year-old said.
‘It was a very indifferent day for me today, I felt like I couldn’t win. Hopefully now Arsenal can go on and win the league and beat Man City on Wednesday.’
‘Everyone feels a bit deflated I think, that’s the sense I got from the fans and both teams,’ Walcott added. ‘We were in a great position of course and we kind of threw it away.
‘Before the game we would have taken a point against the team at the top of the league but with five minutes to go we felt we were in control.’
