Wednesday 9 March 2016 13:49, UK
Theo Walcott says Arsenal players held a private meeting in a bid to get their Premier League title campaign back on track.
The squad get together was organised by four senior players in Petr Cech, Per Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky and Walcott says it has had a positive effect on results since.
Arsenal got back to winning ways against Hull in the FA Cup on Tuesday night, with Olivier Giroud and Walcott each scoring twice in a 4-0 win - their first in six in all competitions.
Before that the Gunners had taken one point from three games in the Premier League, fighting back while down to 10 men to earn a draw against rivals Tottenham after back-to-back defeats at Manchester United and home to Swansea.
That dip has seen Arsene Wenger's side slip eight points behind leaders Leicester but Walcott is convinced the result at White Hart Lane will be pivotal.
He said: "We are not going to lie - we know as a unit it has been tough and we all had a good chat among us behind closed doors, without even any of coaches or the manager knowing about anything. It is important that as a team we have got it in us.
"We just have to produce it more often. You had a sense of the Tottenham game especially, when you go down to 10 men in a big game like that, the belief and the character was there. The never-give-up spirit was there as well. In the derby matches, they could be the matches that turn your season and we may have turned the corner.
"We have quite a lot of experienced players in the dressing room. It came from Petr, Mikel, Per and Tomas. We have four good old heads there. I'd like to keep what was said among ourselves but it was very important. We have had a reaction from it.
"He [the manager] probably knows about it anyway - he's got ears everywhere at the club. The manager respects the players' privacy and what's happening personally among us all. It was a meeting to express how everyone was feeling basically and it worked."
