Theo Walcott: Losing key players has cost Arsenal this season

Theo Walcott believes that Arsenal’s title challenge came to a shuddering halt due to injuries to key players this season.

The England international picked up a season-ending knee injury at the turn of the year, with the Gunners also losing the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil due to fitness issues.

If you take three main players out of a team, it’s going to affect you

Theo Walcott

And Walcott believes that Arsenal’s lengthy injury list was the main reason for the north London side falling off the pace in the title race.

“I miss everyone as you want to be back on the pitch with your team-mates,” Walcott told Arsenal.com. “But I think next season will be a massive one for myself and the team.

“Losing Aaron [Ramsey] and then Mesut [Ozil] and Jack [Wilshere] soon afterwards, the boss admitted it was difficult for us to cope.

“If you take three main players out of a team, it’s going to affect you.

“It was sad for everyone to get injured around the same time but you deal with that as a squad. You want to try and keep your main players fit and sadly we couldn’t.”