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By Mike Collett
LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Arsenal's Theo Walcott has been tipped for stardom since he was a young boy at Southampton and on Tuesday he showed he is coming close to fulfilling his potential.
Still only 18, Walcott made his first Champions League start for Arsenal and played a major role in their 7-0 demolition of Slavia Prague, scoring twice, making two others and causing panic in the Slavia ranks every time he had the ball.
Arsenal now lead Group H with a maximum nine points from three matches. On current form, group rivals Sevilla, Slavia and Steaua Bucharest have little chance of stopping them reaching the last 16.
Sevilla, who beat Steaua 2-1 on Tuesday, are second with six points followed by Slavia on three and Steaua, who have lost their three opening games.
On Tuesday, Cesc Fabregas fired Arsenal ahead in the 5th minute and after a David Hubacek own goal, Walcott effectively wrapped up the game four minutes before half-time, rounding goalkeeper Martin Vaniak to score their third.
That three-goal cushion allowed Arsenal the freedom to attack in the second half and after Alexandr Hleb made it 4-0 Walcott scored his second of the night after 55 minutes to put Arsenal 5-0 ahead.
Fabregas and Nicklas Bendtner rounded out the scoring.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was full of praise for Walcott.
"It took him a while to get into the game," he said.
"Once he scored we saw more of him. There was a touch of Thierry Henry in the second goal. He does not panic in front of goal, he has improved a lot.
"He has good ingredients -- intelligence and fantastic pace and his technique is improving."
Walcott dedicated his first goal to his brother-in-law who died recently, and said of his second: "People will say the second was like Thierry Henry and perhaps it is because I watched him in training all the time."
Arsenal equalled their biggest ever win in Europe -- a 7-0 victory over Standard Liege in the old European Cup Winners Cup in 1993, and also equalled the biggest ever winning margin in the Champions League -- Juventus's 7-0 win over Olympiakos Piraeus in December 2003.
