Forget Giroud, Arsenal forward set to replace big name striker in January

According to reports, Arsenal attacker Theo Walcott is a January transfer target for Merseyside club Everton as new manager Sam Allardyce feels he could perfectly replace Belgium international striker Romelu Lukaku after his transfer last summer to Premier League giants Manchester United.

This is as per a report by Daily Mirror, who claim Everton could land a major double blow to Arsenal by also beating Wenger’s team to the signature of Sevilla star Steven N’Zonzi.

Still, Gunner supporters may be faintly surprised by the claim that the England international forward could come close to perfectly replacing Lukaku at Everton.

The big Belgian striker scored 25 English Premier League goals for the Toffees last term, and 18 in the season before that, while the Arsenal star has never scored more than 14 goals in a single league season for the Emirates side.

Walcott is more of a winger than an outright striker, but he has occasionally been deployed up front by French tactician Arsene Wenger, but has never sealed that role for himself, and is now down the pecking order at the Emirates Stadium altogether.

Walcott, 28, hasn’t started a Premier League game for Arsenal so far this season, which perhaps makes a winter departure very likely as he certainly has no other chance of a late push for the Three Lions’s FIFA World Cup squad.