Walcott: Arsenal´s Ludogorets rout was not easy

Theo Walcott claimed Arsenal’s Champions League win over Ludogorets was not easy, despite the 6-0 scoreline at Emirates Stadium.

Arsene Wenger’s men ran out comfortable winners to remain top of Group A, with Alexis Sanchez, Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all netting before Mesut Ozil fired a hat-trick.

However, Arsenal had been put under pressure by the Bulgarian side and Walcott – who netted with an excellent long-range strike – did not feel it was a straightforward task.

“The goal was fantastic, but our first aim as a team is always to keep a clean sheet,” he said.

“We know how good we are going forward, it’s about sorting ourselves out at the back – and we’ve managed to do that this season. The performances are coming.

“[Ludogorets] started the game very strongly. They’ve got a lot of technically very good players and the scoreline may say it was quite easy, but it was far from easy.

“We can be proud of that and look forward to the weekend [against Middlesbrough in the Premier League].”

Shkodran Mustafi agreed with his team-mate’s analysis, adding that he was surprised by the quality Ludogorets possessed.

“It was 6-0, but I think it was still a tough game,” he said. “[Ludogorets] played well.

“Personally, I was surprised a little bit because they really played well out from the back. They had a lot of confidence and we had to deal with that first.

“Then, when we get the chances, we need to score – and that’s what we did. In the final third, we were really concentrated and we scored nearly all of the chances that we had.”