Arsenal slipped to seventh place in the Premier League, after failing to find the net in a 0-0 draw with Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium on Wednesday evening.
Robin van Persie hit the woodwork twice against the strugglers, but the final outcome was satisfactory for the home side as Arsene Wenger’s men played out a fourth straight game without a win in the league.
The Gunners could have gone in front within the first ten minutes, only for David Wheater heading off the Bolton line when Adam Bogdan had been beaten by a van Persie header.
The Dutchman then cut the ball in for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, but the gifted young winger shot off target with the goal at his mercy. Van Persie, meanwhile, shot over as Arsenal continued to squander chances, before Bolton created a few of their own.
David Ngog forced an improvised save from Wojciech Szczesny when he tried to find the Arsenal net from a narrow angle, the same Bolton player also shooting wide soon after when a running onto a Wheater clearance up the field.
Walcott followed fellow winger Oxlade-Chamberlain onto the wasters of the gilt-edged chances list. He was fed by the youngster’s through-ball and sprinted clear of a Bolton defence looking in vain for an offside flag. However, with just Bogdan to beat, the ex-Southampton man could only shoot at the goalkeeper, who did enough to put the ball behind for a corner.
Yet, after a wide catalogue of chances, the half-time whistle sounded with the score, somehow, at 0-0.
The second half was slower to get going than the first, with Walcott again failing to break the deadlock when his shot struck Mark Davies and the midfielder got the ball to safety.
Arsenal began to get very much on top, with Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey missing chances, while Bacary Sagna, back in the Arsenal starting line-up after four months out with a broken leg, created real panic in the Bolton area with a teasing low cross. With home hearts in mouths van Persie lashed it against the near post and Bolton survived, as they did moments later when Oxlade-Chamberlain just cleared the bar.
That was his last action as Thierry Henry took the young man’s place. Owen Coyle, meanwhile, introduced Kevin Davies, still a Bolton player after Sunderland’s transfer window interest, for Ngog. Neither substitute would influence the outcome.
Van Persie has scored most of Arsenal’s goals this season but on the night it was the woodwork he was hitting the most. With time running out a splendid dink from the Dutchman beat Bogdan but not his crossbar, Walcott running onto the loose ball and hacking it badly wide from six yards as Wenger displayed a frustrated frown at the final whistle.