Mikel Arteta responds to Theo Walcott's claim he "felt a lot of fear" in Arsenal during Southampton draw

Mikel Arteta has responded to Theo Walcott's suggestion he could "feel a lot of fear" in Arsenal players during the club's Wednesday clash against Southampton. Gunners played a 1 - 1 draw with the Premier League rivals, with Walcott scoring the first goal of the match in the 18th minute and giving the lead to Saints before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's equaliser. Speaking after the game, Walcott shared his impressions with Amazon Prime Video, claiming he "felt a lot of fear in Arsenal tonight to be honest". However, Arteta has played down the forward's suggestion, saying: "I don’t know. I was going to say, I just spoke with him and he never mentioned that to me. "He mentioned other things but not that. But, I don’t know… if he said that, it’s his feeling." Then he added: "Just to play with freedom and to enjoy the profession as well. "And be accountable when you go out on the pitch, that you do your best and then there are a lot of things that we cannot control. "And I’ll try to protect them as much as possible and give them comfort, but you saw there were four or five situations in the first half where we were around the box, inside the six-yard box to finish the action and it should be a goal, and it’s lacking. "But in the second half Auba scored and hopefully this unlocks a little bit because individually he’s a player that needs that moment and hopefully things will change."

Arteta and Walcott having a chat pitchside after finishing media duties. pic.twitter.com/IWKmvafi46

— Simon Collings (@sr_collings) December 16, 2020

Source: Metro UK

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