The Arsenal crowd were on Walcott's back again this afternoon after Tottenham raced to a 2-0 lead at the Emirates Stadium.

But the England winger helped turn the game on its head to seal a 5-2 victory, capping an outstanding second-half performance by scoring twice in a Barclays Premier League game for the first time in more than 18 months.

The emergence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has seen Walcott lag behind in the affections of the Arsenal faithful and he told Sky Sports: "You always have to get on with the game when things are not going too well.

"I can hold my hands up and say I didn't have the greatest of first halves. But it just shows the character, not just me but the team, trying to forget about that and work hard in the second half.

"If you work hard, hopefully good things will come to you and it happened for me - hopefully it will happen to everyone else now."

Captain Robin van Persie, who inspired today's comeback, added: "If you speak about my friend Theo, I think it's funny he gets so many critics.

"He's given me loads of assists and I know and everyone knows he can score. He showed that in this game, he scored two goals and will score more.

"I said a couple of weeks ago he will score 20 goals - and he will, trust me."

Van Persie also hailed Arsenal's fightback, saying: "We did it a couple of times earlier in the season, against (Aston) Villa, in the FA Cup.

"Everyone knows we have it in ourselves to show that kind of commitment. To do it against Spurs is a dream."

He added: If you come from 2-0 down to win 5-2 - and it could have been more - it's fantastic, especially for the fans who have suffered in the last few weeks. It was a classic comeback."

Walcott said: "Coming off looking at the result felt unreal. It shows how well we played, we took all of our chances."

The win lifted Arsenal back above Chelsea into fourth place and Van Persie said: "I believe we can stay there - we have a great team."