Arsenal monitor Monaco stars closely

Arsenal have endured another disappointing campaign in the Premier League this season and whether or not Arsene Wenger remains in charge of the club in the coming years, the Gunners will surely have to strengthen their squad during the summer in order to mount a more genuine title bid next season.

Now the North London side already seem to have begun their recruitment plans for the summer as the Daily Mail have revealed that club scout Gilles Grimandi was present at the Stade Louis II during Monaco’s Champions League Round of 16 second leg clash against Manchester City on Wednesday.

The report does not clarify as to which specific player Grimandi had been scouting but it is believed that the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Mendy, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Fabinho were all under consideration.

Wenger hails ‘big game’ player Theo Walcott

Theo Walcott has arguably not progressed in the manner at which Arsenal would have wanted to when he joined the club from Southampton back in 2006 but the 28-year-old has enjoyed improvement during the current campaign and his 15 goals in 26 appearances so far this season is a testament to this fact.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been left very pleased with Walcott’s performances in recent times and the Frenchman has gone on hailed the more mature Gunners’ attacker for delivering during the big games.

Wenger explained, "He has become more of a complete player, more efficient. He does better in the tactical part of his game and works hard defensively and offensively. He has been less injured as well, that helps.

"He has turned up in big games as well, he can score goals in big games. He showed that against Bayern, he scored the goal and I think it was a penalty on him and he can influence games.

"The major quality of Theo is the quality of his receptions. That means he gets the ball in areas where he is extremely dangerous and that is a very intelligent part of a football player."

Walcott not happy at being dropped by England

Theo Walcott has enjoyed a fruitful campaign this term and as a result, it was very surprising to see the Arsenal star being dropped by England manager Gareth Southgate for the upcoming internationals against Germany and Lithuania.

Now Southgate has gone on to speak about the surprise omission of Walcott in favour of Sunderland star Jermain Defoe and has admitted that the Arsenal star was not left happy at being excluded from the squad.

The Three Lions’ boss said, “I’ve got to say he wasn’t chuffed to bits to get the call. And I understand that. Quite rightly, he said, ‘I’m one of the leading goal-scorers in the league.

“I don’t mind being challenged on that at all. I totally respect that. I don’t expect him to be happy. But I’ve got to make decisions and I think it was the right thing to call him to talk that through, even though the timing probably wasn’t great.”