SAINTS forward Theo Walcott admitted Thursday’s clash with AFC Bournemouth will “probably determine” where the club are.

The St Mary’s side host south coast rivals Cherries off the back of a 3-3 draw with Arsenal at Emirates Stadium this weekend.

Walcott – who scored against his former side in the Gunners – and co remain bottom of the Premier League after a late double-salvo from Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka.

While Bournemouth are nine points clear of Saints, a win over them could haul them back into a relegation battle – but Saints have lost nearly all their six-pointers.

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Walcott, speaking at Emirates Stadium, said: “We’re in games, we’ve come here and got a result so there’s a team in there. Hopefully, it’s going to come out in the next few games.

Daily Echo:

“We’ve got a massive game against Bournemouth of course and that’s probably going to determine where we are.

“You’ve got to take some positives because the team stuck together in a really difficult moment, for me Arsenal were incredible and way better than City who we played the other week.

“That’s how I see them at the moment, we can take positives as they’re the best team in the league at the moment.”

He added: “It looked like the result deflated everyone, that’s the sense I got from the fans and from both teams.

“We wanted to win the game and we were in a good position but we threw it away. In hindsight, of course, you would have taken a point away from home at the top of the league but when you’re five minutes away you’ve got to be hanging on.”

Walcott, 34, also admitted it was an interesting day for him personally, having made 397 appearances for Arsenal following his Saints exit as a teenager.

“We started really well with Charly (Alcaraz) getting his goal and then myself, my son is going to be disappointed that I didn’t celebrate but I couldn’t,” he said.

“It was a very indifferent day for me today. It felt like I couldn’t really win regardless of the situation, but it is what it is. Hopefully, Arsenal go on and beat (Manchester) City on Wednesday and win the league.”