Arsene Wenger: Theo Walcott will stay

Arsene Wenger has said Theo Walcott is likely to pen a new deal at Arsenal very soon — and has backed him to score plenty of goals this season.

Walcott, 26, hit the only goal of the game yesterday as Arsenal beat Wolfsburg 1-0 to secure Emirates Cup success for the Gunners for the first time since 2010.

His future at Arsenal had again been questioned but Wenger expects him to sign a new contract and, with the Frenchman adamant he does not need to add a striker in the transfer market, he feels Walcott can produce the goods.

“Not yet but we’re getting closer and closer. Hopefully we can finalise it very soon,” he said when asked if Walcott had already signed a new deal.

“It was another goal for Theo and I’m not surprised by that because I played him through the middle. I’ve always said that he’s a goal-scorer because he has the movement, he has the timing of the run, the speed for the finishing, and he has an eye for taking his chances at the right moments.”

When asked what Walcott’s best position was, he answered: “It’s a good question because it’s a complicated answer. I think in all the three positions. If you ask him where he loves to play, I believe that even he will say that it depends a little bit on the period. Sometimes he prefers left. When I’ve played him on the left he likes it as well because if he makes a good run he can score goals as well.

“In his ideal world he would like to play with a strong guy next to him, a player who is very strong physically, and play off him. We have so many offensive players which makes that very difficult to combine all of them together. He’s not an aggressive striker, he’s a mobile striker. He’s the striker who lives from the quality of his movement and the speed of his movement.”

Arsenal may not have not matched the heights of Saturday’s 6-0 thrashing of Lyon but Wenger was still pleased with his side’s performance — which also saw Petr Cech make his first appearance at the Emirates Stadium.

One man linked with a move to Emirates Stadium regularly is Borussia Dortmund forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but he has dismissed speculation linking him with a move away from the Bundesliga club.

The Gabon international told the Welt am Sonntag paper: “You can take it for granted that I am not going to waste any time thinking about giving up how happy I am at Borussia, in the city of Dortmund and with this team.”

Meanwhile Angel Di Maria failed to board his flight to the US and therefore did not join Manchester United’s pre-season tour party on Saturday, Louis van Gaal revealed.

Di Maria, subject of serious interest from Paris St Germain, was due to meet up with his team-mates in San Jose on Saturday. But the British record signing did not catch his plane to California, which will fuel speculation his move to PSG is moving closer.

“No,” the United manager said when asked if Di Maria had flown to San Jose.

“I have heard he is not on the plane. I cannot say anything. He was not on the plane.”