Walcott calls for Gunners to show belief

Theo Walcott, who has finally ended a year-long saga by signing a new contract at the Emirates, may be only 23 but he has packed an awful lot into his football career already; enough, he says, to know his Arsenal team-mates simply don’t realise how good they can be.

Walcott’s decision to pledge his future to the club has been one of the more positive moments of an Arsenal season that has once again fluctuated from good to bad with alarming regularity.

So now, as Arsene Wenger’s side — beaten at Chelsea at the weekend following a miserable first-half display — face a home game against West Ham tomorrow night they cannot afford to lose, Thomas Vermaelen and company could do worse than listen to the young striker’s analysis.