Arsenal suffered a wretched start to their season when they lost three of their opening four games - a run which led some sections of their support to call for manager Arsene Wenger's head. The Frenchman has steered the club up the Premier League table in recent weeks, however, and the Gunners now sit just three points off the Champions League places after winning eight of their last nine games. The high point of their run came at Stamford Bridge when strikes from Walcott, Andre Santos and a hat-trick from Robin van Persie stunned Andre Villas-Boas' team 5-3 in west London. With games against West Brom, Fulham, Norwich and Wigan ahead, Arsenal look set to continue their ascent, and the 22-year-old has warned the Gunners are now back to their irresistible best. He said: "We are not looking too far ahead. We don't want to say where we're going to finish at the end of the season, but the way we're playing at this moment in time we believe we can beat anyone. "We're enjoying our football, our run is great now and we're just going to keep on continuing that... everyone is buzzing at the moment. "We were disappointed to go 2-1 down just before half-time, but before that we were playing some great football. "It seemed that every time we went forward it looked like we were going to score and it could have been 8-7. It was just one of those crazy games that I'll never forget." After seeing Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas depart this summer, Wenger's choice of replacements hardly filled Arsenal fans with optimism. But just a few days after the Arsenal boss launched an impassioned speech at the club's AGM pleading with Gunners supporters to trust his transfer policy, new boys Gervinho and Santos excelled at Stamford Bridge. Walcott thinks the new arrivals have started to settle in properly, helping the club climb the table. He said: "We have got some absolute characters in that dressing room and Andre Santos was absolutely brilliant. He looks like he has been in the Premier League for many years. "We have the right balance between youth and experience now and we've got a lot players coming back from injury too." Walcott also paid tribute to van Persie, whose hat-trick took his Arsenal goal tally to 12 goals this season. Walcott believes the Gunners may not have stumbled in their title bid last year had their star striker not been beset by injuries. "Robin's form is fantastic. It makes our job much easier when he plays like that," Walcott said. "I have been playing alongside him for many years. It's nice to see a fit Robin. He is enjoying playing his football, he is enjoying scoring, he is enjoying getting other people involved. "He is a great leader, a great captain. Anyone in that dressing room will tell you he is an absolute leader. "He is very passionate and on the pitch it showed. We never had a fit Robin throughout the whole season. Hopefully he can look after himself and we can have a run until the end of the year." Despite van Persie's heroics, Walcott's goal was arguably the best of the match. With the score at 2-2, he picked himself up after slipping in a tackle and muscled his way past three Chelsea players before driving past Petr Cech. "When you're confident you think you can do anything," Walcott said. "I managed to lose my balance but get up quite quickly. If I hadn't scored Aaron (Ramsey) would have killed me because he was free. "It (scoring) is something I bring to the game and I also try fulfil my defensive duties. But it's not just me, it's the whole team - they were all great."
