I am very pleased my future is sorted says a happy Theo Walcott

The 23-year-old Theo Walcott is overwhelmed at committing his future at Arsenal after his contract extension was announced on Friday.

“I am very pleased,” Walcott told Arsenal Player. “For the last three games before [the Chelsea match] it was sort of done, but it was on my mind and had been for a long time because it was so close.

“It is difficult to play and block out that side of it, but I tried to do the best I could and hopefully everyone was happy with what I did. I always wanted to stay and I am happy that myself and the Club have come to an agreement.

“There has been so much speculation for so long, and I am very pleased my future is sorted. But it is all about the present now.”

Walcott scored the only goal for his side against Chelsea in the West London Derby this Sunday and he has wants Arsenal to climb up on to the top four positions of the table.

“We didn’t really start until the second half,” he said. “It’s a shame that we conceded two sloppy goals and then woke up a bit. We need to show that character and desire to win from the start, not when we concede a goal.

“That is the disappointing thing. We dominated the second half and it is just a shame that we could not get the equaliser that we probably deserved. There were some positives to take out of it, but we need to start learning from the mistakes that we have made.”

Arsenal will play West Ham this Wednesday and Walcott believes that the Gunners will pick up pace after the win.

“There are a lot of teams that have got stronger this year, so we need to step on the gas. We don’t want to be playing catch-up,” he said. “We want to get points on the board as soon as possible.

“We have a tough game at home against West Ham, so we need to be ready. It is a massive game, we have home support and we need to start clocking up points there.

“We have been hot and cold at home of late, so we must be very positive and if we show the commitment that we did in the second half [against Chelsea] we should be fine.”

Compiled by Rida Mehtab (@RidaaMehtaab on Twitter)