Walcott believes FA Cup win over Villa will help EPL turn around

Arsenal ace believes stunning FA Cup win over Villa will help turn around dismal EPL campaign

Arsenal ace believes stunning FA Cup win over Villa will help turn around dismal EPL campaign

Theo Walcott hopes Arsenal's luck has finally changed as the Gunners aim to get their Premier League campaign back on track with victory over Bolton tonight. Arsene Wenger's side were 2-0 down in their FA Cup fourth round tie against Aston Villa at Emirates Stadium heading into at half-time on Sunday, with another shot at a long overdue trophy looking to have passed them by.


Arsenal's Theo Walcott (right) celebrates his goal against Aston Villa
with teammates on Sunday. Pic/Getty Images

However, a rousing second-half performance turned the tie around with a brace of penalties from captain Robin van Persie sandwiching a somewhat fortunate effort from the England winger as Arsenal secured a place in the last 16 against either Sunderland or Middlesbrough next month.

Walcott, who scored after his goal-line cross was hacked against him by Alan Hutton and then into the net, feels Arsenal can head to Bolton confident of putting three straight league defeats behind them as they aim to close back on the top four.

"Hopefully, something came out of us that we can turn into Premier League form, which hasn't been great lately. Hopefully, our luck has changed now," he said. "It was a good thing that it was the FA Cup, it is totally different to the Premier League. We needed a slight break."

Walcott continued: "We have a lot of regret from recent (league) games because we should have won them.
"Bolton is going to be a tough game because they are coming off the back of a few good results, like against Liverpool."

Van Persie escapes FA actionu00a0
Arsenal captain Robin van Persie will be free to lead the Gunners' fight to get back into the Premier League top four after facing no further action over a stray elbow in his clash with Aston Villa defender Carlos Cuellar during Sunday's FA Cup fourth round tie at Emirates Stadium. Villa boss Alex McLeish called for the Football Association to take retrospective action against Persie for what he claimed was a "clear elbow" on the Spaniard, but match referee Mike Jones has told disciplinary officials he saw the incident and decided it was not worthy of punishment.