Walcott staying put - no loan

Arsene Wenger has refused speculation that Theo Walcott would be leaving the club on loan, after the youngster was the subject of a loan move to Premiership side Blackburn as Mark Hughes admitted an interest in Theo.

Hughes said: “We’re always looking to bring in good players and if we’re told there are situations where we can get them then we’re interested.

“That’s what it was with Walcott — but we were told it’s unlikely he’d be going out of his club.”

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger revealed Walcott would be saying: “No, because we are very short.

“We have 17 players at the moment and you could see the players who were on the bench at Tottenham should not have been on the bench there.”