As the Arsenal striker debate rages on, despite both their strikers scoring against Stoke, Arsene Wenger has come to the defence of Theo Walcott, calling the frontman’s finish ‘a real striker’s goal’.

In what has clearly become this season’s narrative, there have been such ridiculous pieces around that I was almost rendered speechless by the London Evening Standard’s gem that stated ‘Walcott and Giroud find the net but Arsenal’s striking woes grow’. This is their agenda and they will push it now until the end of the season, regardless of what happens on the pitch.

But Arsene Wenger had a message for all of them in comments that were not at all veiled and seemed to be aimed right at the heart of the entire debate.

“His goal was outstanding,” the boss told Arsenal Player. “The quality of his movement, the quality of his control and the quality of his finish was absolutely outstanding.

“It’s a real striker’s goal.

“Scoring is a bit cyclic, up and down, but with the quality of the players we have we know we can score goals. We did against Stoke and if we continue to create that number of chances we will score much more.

“We had 30 shots on goal and we created bags of chances. We played with good mobility, good movement and good combinations with high technical quality.

“The only regret we have is that between the number of chances we had and the number of goals we scored, maybe the difference is a bit big. Overall it’s good to win.”

The goal was Theo’s 11th in his last 11 Premier League starts, and while I do often feel that he isn’t a natural striker, you can’t argue with his numbers or the goals that he does score.

This debate will rage on and on as papers try to prove that they were right and Arsene Wenger was wrong to place his trust in Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott.

In this battle, there’s only one person my money is going on and he doesn’t have a red top.