Walcott: West Ham game is a must-win as we aim to catch Spurs & Everton

Tuesday, January 22, 2013
8:28 AM

Arsenal forward Theo Walcott has described the Gunners’ game with West Ham as a must-win as they look to catch Tottenham and Everton.

The north Londoners are four points behind the Toffees, who are a further three points behind Spurs and the game with the Hammers, which was moved from Boxing Day because of a Tube strike, is a chance to cut the gap.

And the 23-year-old wants to use the motivation of last season, where they managed to catch and pass Tottenham and Chelsea from a significant way behind.

“Last year we were so many points behind that no one never thought we would get there,” he said.

“We’ve got a game in hand but we need to clock up these points fast. Teams get better every year. We don’t want to be standing still. We need to make sure that we’re right up there at the end of the season.

“Champions League football and competing [for honours] means a lot. It’s one of the main [reasons] why I signed because I feel we should be there. I still think we will. We’ll be fine.

“We just need to not worry about that [the gap to fourth place]. We hope that Tottenham do drop points but we’ve got to concentrate on ourselves. We’ve got a big game on Wednesday and we need to pick up all the lads.

“It’s our game in hand and we need to make sure that we get three points. No disrespect to West Ham but we should be winning that.”