Thursday, 10 December 2015

Theo Walcott has urged Arsenal to heed the lessons from the lack of respect the club showed Monaco last season following the team's great escape to reach the Champions League knockout stages. Arsene Wenger's side traveled to Olympiacos needing to win by a two-goal margin to join Bayern Munich in qualifying for the last 16 and an Olivier Giroud hat trick inspired Arsenal to a 3-0 win. It marks a fine turnaround for the Premier League side, which lost its opening two Group F matches. However, the England international says Arsenal was guilty of complacency against Monaco at the same stage last term when the club surprisingly exited the competition on the away goals rule after a 3-3 aggregate draw. "Whoever we end up playing, we must respect them," Walcott said. "Monaco, obviously, we didn't respect them at all. If we get the likes of Wolfsburg - we played them in the Emirates Cup - it will be a completely different ball game because they had a great result against Manchester United. But who knows until the draw is done." The forward also believes that the nature of his side's win in Greece means none of the group winners will want to face the Gunners. "I'm sure none of them [teams who topped their group] would like to play us after that result," he said. "It's the Champions League. Whoever you get in the draw is going to be difficult. You've seen teams struggle when they should go through and should be winning. "It's the way the setup is now, even in the Premier League you see every team get much better."


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