Wenger: Theo's out for season

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has conceded that Theo Walcott's season is now over, after confirming the forward is to undergo surgery this week.

The starlet came off the bench in Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Everton and his cameo at Goodison Park will be his last, courtesy of a shoulder injury that has curtailed his season.

After a bright start to his Arsenal career, Walcott has faded in the second half of the campaign and Wenger believes his shoulder complaint has been the main cause of a downturn in fortune.

"Walcott's season is over. He will have surgery on Tuesday," said Wenger. "The medical advice is to do it now.

"He was doing well until he damaged his shoulder, now he is only 50 per cent of what he was before.

"You can see that now. He was on for only 10 minutes and his shoulder popped out, you cannot play football like that."

Wenger admitted his side were jaded on their excursion to Merseyside and the Frenchman had few complaints about the result.

He concluded: "We are a bit jaded physically, and we did not make the most of our opportunities.

"The final ball was not good enough, even though we battled well to the end.

"The spirit was excellent, but we didn't create enough. The conditions were not good, but they were the same for everyone.

"We are not guaranteed to be in the top four and we want to be in there, we have a difficult programme and must not fail to be in that top four.

"We lost at Blackburn in the last minute, we lost to Eindhoven late in the game and the same against Everton as well as losing a late goal to Chelsea in the Carling Cup Final.

"What we are missing is the maturity to deal with that."