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ARSENE WENGER’S Christmas wish was answered last night — by Santi!
And he hopes for more festive cheer by persuading Theo Walcott to stay.
Spanish maestro SantiCazorla hit a hat-trick to ease the pressure on the Arsenal boss. Walcott — playing in his favoured central striker role — also scored. And Wenger wants the England manto sign a new contract soon.
He said: “If it was my decision, it would be done quickly. Our desire and will is clear and he knows that. Hopefully we can get to ahappy end with it.”
Walcott is out of contract in the summer and could leave for nothing.
He has been frustrated by Wenger’s previous refusal to play him down themiddle and rejected an £80,000-a-week offer.

WELL DONE SON ... Wenger and Theo
Wenger added: “He has become a top-level player at Arsenal and I hope when heconsiders his future, he will think this is the best place for him and sign for us.
“We have a good core of young English players.
“I hope we will be capable of building ateam around all these young English players who can achieve something together. We have gone through a period of restricted potential financially. Hopefully now wecan be a bit more convincing.”
Wenger admitted his team have been in a “crisis” following their poor league form and humiliating defeat by League Two side Bradford inthe Capital One Cup last week.
Cazorla’s treble, plus a Lukas Podolski strike, had Arsenal cruising at 4-0.
But Adam Le Fondre and Jimmy Kebe made it 4-2 beforeWalcott netted.
Wenger added: “We were under a lot of tension before the game. We thought subconsciously it was done at 4-0.
“But at 4-2, I saw your headlines coming!”