Arsene Wenger has publicly backed his Arsenal captain William Gallas.

William Gallas has taken a pounding in the press recently. Since Arsenal’s form has dropped questions have been asked about the Arsenal captain.

1. His ’sit in’ after the Birmingham game - Gallas needed Wenger to come and collect him from the pitch after the game.

2. Comments about Theo Walcott not fulfilling his potential and needing to work harder.

3. His pre match show to the SkySports camera’s before the Chelsea game, where he was seen and heard firing up his Arsenal teammates. Former Arsenal captain Tony Adams questioned whether it was done for the camera’s.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has no doubt about Gallas, defending him to the hilt:

“He has my full support and my full backing, I am completely behind him and behind the team as well.” Wenger said to Arsenal.com

“People have questioned him but you still have the same William Gallas. And the same people said it was a good choice to make him captain when we were five points ahead. You have not to go too much overboard. We did not have a good game defensively on Sunday, that’s true, if overall I feel we played all right. And he had not the best of games on Sunday but I don’t question his position in the team, nor his leadership.”

On the Theo Walcott comments from Gallas, Wenger was equally supportive:

“I believe that the article where Theo was criticised was from an article made in GQ about Wayne Rooney, I read what William said in this article and I agree completely with him. He said Walcott could be the next Wayne Rooney, but he has to work. What is wrong with that? You want, at 18 years of age, not to work? I read it really carefully, it didn’t say anything wrong in that. After the way it has been turned, yes. But if you want to win the World Cup you have to accept that your players are highly exposed and you have to accept that you have to work.”