Chris Sutton was less than impressed with Theo Walcott’s 62-minute performance for England during their 0-0 draw against Slovenia on Tuesday night.

The forward has been enjoying a brilliant season for Arsenal so far, scoring five goals in all competitions so far. However, for England, some sections of the media fail to see what all the fuss has been about and have completely torn the lad to shreds.

Let’s look at some headlines, shall we?

Both The Independent and Daily Star have gone with the tag line that Theo’s a flop and failure. While Sky Sports only gave him a player rating of 5/10, claiming that he did nothing but make wrong decisions. Only Jesse Lingard got a rating that low.

This is harsh enough for a player who thought he was on the up. However, the most vicious comes from former striker, Chris Sutton. The man launched a nasty attack which, no matter how poor Theo performed, was out of line.

“All the fuss about Theo Walcott this season — I don’t get it,” Sutton said.

“People are saying he is a changed player. He is neither clever nor creative and he was completely ineffective once again for England.

“The Arsenal man has no guile and didn’t link up at all or put any decent crosses in all night. His pass appreciation is desperately poor and his defensive clearance just after half-time summed his night up. Everyone has credited Gareth Southgate for having the courage to drop Wayne Rooney, but he needs to learn fast and leave Walcott out.

“Andros Townsend was far more effective in his 28-minute cameo.”

Was Theo good? No, he wasn’t. Does he deserve the amount of vitriol being flung at him by Sutton? Not at all.

Sutton’s attack was personal and deeply unnecessary. You’re there to talk about football, not insult other people’s intelligence and tear the bloke to shreds. You should be able to get a point across without being plain nasty and if you can’t, you’re not a very good pundit.