What we're seen since that night of emergence is potentially a microcosm of Walcott's immediate future. Time and space in a premiership game by virtue of Arsenal's superiority, as opposed to the clatterings he received in the Champions League against Kiev. Defenders across Europe will have awoken to the headlines of England's new great hope, and decided to take action.
There are two things that might happen here; one would be that Walcott gets kicked out of the game, or the other thing would be that he uses this to his advantage. He needs to watch an experienced wide attacker at work - it's just a shame Thierry Henry isn't at the Emirates any more. I offer one master class in wide play that I saw recently, namely City's Martin Petrov ripping West Ham to shreds. His movement off the full back, who tried gamely to kick him up in the air was impressive, and a lesson to any young player.
Walcott should develop into a much more fearsome attacker, and more central, than Petrov, purely on the basis of his finishing. Hopefully my prediction of pre-season, that Walcott's emergence into the Arsenal first team will be cemented this season, comes true. Since seeing Walcott for Southampton in the Championship a couple of years ago, I've really thought that if he stays fit he could be the next great talent to emerge.
It would be nice to see him playing and scoring in Wenger's side - if Nicholas Bendtner can play then Walcott should have no problems. Let's do something we don't do too often in this country, back this talent and not expect too much too soon.
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