Walcott - Wenger a great man

Winger to pull his weight and urges team-mates to do likewise

Theo Walcott is the latest Arsenal player to defend boss Arsene Wenger, claiming the players are to blame for their poor start to the season.

With just four points from five Premier League games, Arsenal have made their worst beginning to a league campaign in over 50 years.

And long-serving manager Wenger has been the focal point in the failings, with small sections of their support calling for a new direction in the club's history.

England forward Walcott insists the Frenchman is not feeling any heat, though, and suggests it's time he and his team-mates started pulling their weight on the pitch.

"The boss is a great man, he can deal with anything thrown at him," he told Absolute Radio.

"He's been at the club for over 15 years and so he's not under any pressure at all.

"Us players, we need to look at ourselves and start doing it on the pitch, to be honest. A lot of people say about the defensive sort of issue but it's not just the back four, you need to look at defending as a whole team.

"We haven't managed to do that, to be honest, so we need to make sure we're at it against Bolton at the weekend. It's going to be a tough game. They have come from a good result during midweek.

"We've got our home fans as well. We've got a few home games and that's important for us now, to have our home support.

"The boss can deal with anything."

Blackburn loss

The Gunners led twice at Blackburn last weekend before eventually crumbing to a 4-3 Premier League defeat at Ewood Park.

Walcott admits it was disappointing to concede four goals, but wants to draw a line under the loss as Arsenal welcome Bolton to the Emirates on Saturday.

"We've just got to forget about (last week)," he said. "We're scoring goals. We managed to score three goals away from home and still lost, which was disappointing.

"But we just need to forget about it. We need to just move on. That is important for us, not to dwell on these results we've had.

"We just need to try and just win, take it game by game. Maybe we're thinking too far ahead at the moment.

"As soon as we start getting a good run, hopefully you'll see the true Arsenal come back.

"Manchester United had a bad start last season, not as bad as us, but you can bounce back from that so we've got nothing to worry about."