After Theo Walcott’s embarrassing penalty save against Liverpool on the opening day of the season, it appears that Arsene Wenger has demoted him to number two in the penalty-taking pecking order – or has he?

Speaking after Arsenal’s 3-1 win away to Watford, a game in which Santi Cazorla was chosen to take the Gunners’ ninth-minute penalty (and he scored), Wenger admitted that Theo isn’t first choice to take spot-kicks. Or at least he wasn’t against Watford.

“Look, I name three penalty takers before every single game,” Wenger insisted.

“I did not take Theo completely out of it, because he was number two.”

Obviously, the boss wasn’t going to confirm that Theo’s miss against Liverpool made him demote the forward or that he wasn’t always second choice. Santi Cazorla wasn’t on the pitch when Theo had to take his penalty against the Merseyside team. If he had been, it’s unclear whether he was first choice at the time and would have therefore taken it.

However, Wenger’s choice of words – “I did not take Theo completely out of it” – suggest that he has been moved down the list.

Perhaps I’m just reading too much into it.

Theo’s performance against Watford wasn’t too bad. He was slightly wasteful but also pretty useful going forward. Hopefully, he can build up some momentum and get back to his best.