Theo Walcott has made a surprise claim about Arsene Wenger and a former Arsenal player.
The Englishman spent over a decade at Arsenal having joined the Gunners as a teenager from Southampton back in the summer of 2006.
Walcott played close to 400 games for Arsenal before leaving the club in 2018’s winter transfer window to join Sam Allardyce’s Everton.
The now-retired winger played with a lot of great players during his time at Arsenal, but he has now named the one who even Wenger was scared of.
Theo Walcott says Arsene Wenger was ‘afraid’ of Mikel Arteta
Wenger signed Mikel Arteta for Arsenal for £10 million in the summer of 2021 (BBC).
The Spaniard joined the club on transfer deadline day from Everton and immediately became a very important player – both on and off the pitch.
Arteta played 150 games for Arsenal and even became the captain of the club. Walcott saw him from his first day at Arsenal until the last – in 2016 when he retired.
Now the manager of Arsenal, Arteta has everyone’s respect and after how he banished the likes of Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from the club, we’re sure the players are a bit scared of him too.
However, Walcott has now made a surprising revelation.
The former Arsenal attacker has revealed that even Wenger was ‘afraid’ of Arteta.
Speaking on the Up Front podcast, Walcott said: “I remember my experience with Mikel when he was a player. Again, hindsight is a great thing, but I look at it now.
“The turning point for me was when we weren’t making top four at the time, and he – I mean, Arsene’s there, we have training in 30 minutes – Mikel has literally locked the dressing room, players only, and he was like ‘I’m taking control of this whole space. I’m going to say how it is. It’s an open room if anyone else wants to speak.’
“It’s always stuck with me. I remember it was like he was the manager there in that moment. For me, that was a turning point thing, and I was like ‘this guy, he’d be a manager, I’d love to play with this guy’.
“And then after that, we made top four that year, and it was that one particular speech. Arsene was outside waiting for us to train. We were not out there, because Mikel stopped training. That’s how strong of a character he was.
“Even Arsene was afraid of him.”
READ MORE: Theo Walcott names Arsenal icon as the only attacker who was better than Robin van Persie
The one thing Arteta has to do to become an Arsenal legend
Arteta has done so much for Arsenal already.
The Spaniard was a key player for the Gunners during his time at the club. He was a real leader and helped them win three FA Cups.
Then, he returned as a manager, won the FA Cup again in his first season and has since completely transformed the club. Arsenal are regular contenders for the title now.
Arteta is already a hero to fans, but for him to cement his legacy as an Arsenal great, he needs to do one more thing – win a big trophy.
In the next few years, if Arteta can deliver a Premier League or Champions League title or both, he will be an Arsenal legend – nobody can deny it!