Theo Walcott: Embarrassing defeat to Dinamo Zagreb not end of world

Former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has criticised Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s decision to leave out Theo Walcott from the starting XI in the Champions League match against Croatian football club Dinamo Zagreb. “We’ve got a big, important game at the weekend at Chelsea, now we need to focus on that”.

Arsenal went behind to an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain own goal before Giroud’s dismissal for picking up two bookings.

The Czech, though, is expected to be back between the posts for Saturday’s match against the club he left in the summer.

Manager Arsene Wenger admitted it was “a miserable way” for his Gunners side to start the competition, adding that he felt they were “unlucky” on the night. It was accidental completely. It has to be a foul on goal and it was not on objective .

The France global was attracting plenty of attention from the referee and was then shown a yellow card for his reaction after being penalised going up for a header in the 26th minute.

In other games, Arsenal’s London rivals Chelsea ran away 4-0 winners against Israeli outfit Maccabi Tel Aviv, while defending champions Barcelona were held to a 1-1 draw in Rome by AS Roma.

“It’s hard because we had a lot of the ball and we had early chances”.

“I think on the first yellow card, he’s unlucky, because it’s a foul for us, and on the second it’s an accident – he didn’t foul the player on objective “. “I believe the first goal is offside and after that, the sending-off is very harsh”.

“We had a strong team out there to win the game and we created enough chances to at least not lose, even with 10 men“, he said.

“I have to analyse that”.

“Mathematically, we can qualify without any problem”, Wenger insisted.

“After this we are ready for anything which might come, but are also aware of the strength of the group and cannot fall into euphoria”.

Yesterday’s result was poor, but it is not a reflection on Arsenal’s current form, nor will it have any bearing on the season ahead. The 26-year-old performed below us usually high standards providing just one key pass and taking one shot on target during the game.