Theo Walcott had quite the afternoon on Saturday.
He didn’t do too much with a football at his feet in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Hull, but his name received plenty of mentions during the game all the same.
The sight of Walcott squaring up (or attemting to square up) to Hull’s Harry Maguire – despite the obvious height difference – grabbed most of the attention, but there was another reason why Walcott’s name was much-tweeted about during the game.
Some noted that Walcott was wearing a short-sleeved shirt for the match and in doing so, was breaking a club tradition.
Through the years, the length of an Arsenal player’s sleeved has been decided by the club’s captain. So if Laurent Koscielny fancies wearing short sleeves for the day, the rest of the team follows suit. In this game, Koscielny opted for long sleeves and, with Walcott the only exception, the rest of the team did the same.
Walcott’s choice of sleeve length was soon picked up by plenty of Arsenal supporters.
The tradition at Arsenal is that whatever type of shirt sleeve the captain wears, the rest will also wear, so why is Walcott's short sleeve?
— Pierre Alain Sacco (@Gunner263) February 11, 2017
Walcott breaking tradition ffs
— A (@w_aneta) February 11, 2017
So Walcott just out here breaking tradition
— Jordani Jovanovich🇷🇪🇬🇠(@lukesamiam) February 11, 2017
is that Theo Walcott I see wearing short sleeve unlike the captain , get him out my club , taken the pride out of it !
— Sai Descoteaux (@knickthoughts) February 11, 2017
Tony Adams would have kicked Theo Walcott's head in back in the day for wearing different sleeves. #Arsenal
— Sam Brown (@SamBrown2011) February 11, 2017
Walcott has done this on numerous occasions this season – opting for short sleeves in the recent FA Cup win away at Southampton, for example – but the sight of him repeating the trick at The Emirates on Saturday appears to have left some Arsenal fans wanting answers.
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