Walcott not taking form for granted

Theo Walcott claims his hot start to the season was helped by having the summer off, but refused to be drawn on whether he might have helped England had he been included in the World Cup squad.

Walcott was controversially left at home for a campaign in South Africa during which England struggled before an early exit, but the break seems to have done him no harm as he has started the season in excellent form for Arsenal.

"I had a nice break through the summer and everything has gone well, so I just have to keep my feet on the ground," Walcott said.

"It's one of those things," he added of his World Cup exclusion. "I didn't point the finger at anyone, I didn't blame anyone, it's disappointing, but I'm not going to blame myself, I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again by working hard on the training pitch.

"I didn't want to think too much about it, and had a good mental break over the summer, because you want to spend time with your family when you can.

"But it's going well now and that's all I can do."

Walcott is now hoping to start in England's Euro 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria on Friday night.

England waltzed through their World Cup qualifiers before the disappointing performance in South Africa, but Walcott is not expecting things to be easy qualifying for Euro 2012, despite the good showing in the 2-1 friendly win over Hungary earlier in the month.

"No game is easy at the international level," he said. "We had a good result against Hungary and we managed to play well for the whole game. Sometimes the goals don't go in because people come to Wembley, a fantastic fortress, and they put people behind the ball so it can be very difficult to break them down.

"I think they'll be very organised on Friday but if we do the right things we can get a result."