By Antony Kastrinakis
ARSENE WENGER sang Theo Walcott’s praises for defying the boo-boys and turning around a horrible season — just like Arsenal.
And the Gunners chief insisted his first priority come the summer will be to tie down Walcott and Robin van Persie to long-term deals.
Wenger said: “With Theo and Van Persie, that will be sorted out at the end of the season.
“Theo is playing very well. He has improved his technical level a lot, his links with other players and his calmness in front of goal. He is developing very well.
“It is something I will look to sort out very early.
“Yes, I am confident they will sign. To say that I am always confident, yes I am. We want to keep our best players.”
The tide turned for Walcott, 23, in the North London derby last month.
With Arsenal two down inside 34 minutes, Gunners fans jeered the forward every time he touched the ball.
Come the final whistle, Walcott was walking off to a standing ovation after scoring a quick-fire double as the Emirates hailed a 5-2 victory.
Arsenal, who visit lowly QPR today, have won seven league games on the spin.
Wenger admitted the good run could convince both Van Persie and Walcott they should commit their long-term future at the club. He added: “These players want to win things and they want to be in a team that has a chance.
“Our end of season will help me convince them they can here. It depends now how well we finish.
“We have confidence because we have our players back and because we are playing the football we want to play.
“Those are basically the ingredients you want. We won a few games in the last minute — the little things that sometimes go against you went for us.
“You expect QPR to fight not to go down. But it will be important for us to show how much we want another win.”
Wenger insisted Arsenal will do most of their transfer dealings as soon as possible instead of last summer’s deadline-day dash for fresh faces.
He said: “We’ll do the job we have to do before the Euros.”
