Do you remember when Arsenal had REAL strikers?

How the Mighty have fallen… by ED

Believe it or not there once was a time in Arsenal, where we had a string of forwards whom where the envy of every team from Gillingham to Barcelona. Wright, Henry, Bergkamp, Overmars, Anelka, Van Persie, we were titans in the game with the ability to go pound for pound against the big boys, in not only our league but in Europe as well. Fast forward to today we have a winger trying to convince everybody he is a striker, and a centre forward with performance issues, I reiterate the point again how the mighty have fallen.

I tried to hold my tongue after yesterday’s result, but I simply saw red ended up engaging myself in a war of words with a Giroud sympathiser, he made valid points to his credit, but then he preceded to tell me Giroud (when and if he discovers his form is the key to success) I couldn’t help but to laugh. In my last article I compared Giroud to Dial up internet, it does an adequate job if the primary function is to send emails and, quite simply, attempting to stream movies is a step too far, well that’s the same case as Giroud. If you need him to score a couple of goals he’ll do that, ask him to him to lead the line of a championship winning team that’s a step to far.

Let me just clarify why I dislike Giroud, it’s not because he doesn’t score 30 odd goals a season, No its just he’s what I call a luxury striker – aka the ball to feet man. A player who’s ability is so dependent on the attacking players around him, that when they don’t create chances or chances aren’t that regular, he becomes a lost sheep. His inability to create opportunities for himself is probably what pisses me off even more, at his size and his weight (he is a fairly athletic guy) he should be chasing down defenders and have the ability to push passed defenders, cause headaches, be a nightmare, mark and show some more mobility and urgency. His movements are far too predictable and he gets bullied far too easily. He looks more like a wondering nomad as opposed to the man who leads the attack for Arsenal.

And on to Theo Walcott, well he tries, but there is no defending the fact that he is not a striker, more an inside forward. He neither possess the physical ability to hold off defenders challenges (One on One with Kompany, Theo not only gets taken to the cleaners there is a genuine possibility he ends up in hospital), or the technical skills to be able to out manoeuvre defenders (I can count on my fingers the amount of times he has used skill and successfully beaten a defender). His only real threat is his pace and unless you’re a dumbass of a manager or Arsenal go down to 10 like yesterday.. absolutely no chance you hold a high line or press against us – giving Theo the space to get behind your back four…

Don’t say that I don’t support Arsenal, because I criticize one of our players. I’m only comparing them to the standards of present day forwards and to what in the past has made us successful, and I’m sorry if it offends anyone but they are simply not good enough.

Eddie D

Tags Giroud Walcott

29 Comments

    1. I think what you should have said is “the good old days wenger”.

      Today it’s more like, “THE OLD SENILE FOOL NOW me (mr.wagner-bean).

      Opinions?

    2. Very thoughful, and factual article. Recently we were bp,barded by defending articles by AKB’s hopelessly trying to justify the loss, not only that Giroud is world class sriker and Wenger was right not buy any outfielder. No depth in certain areas, and too many players in other positions. Wenger reminds me of an owner of a Pawn Shop, he just buys if it is cheap, and the seller is desperate to sell, it doesn’t matter he needs or not, some day some one come up with a good cash to sell him to.
      So, welcome to Arsenal Pawn Shop.
      Wenger out.

  1. do you forget that wenger turns wingers to strikers?
    OT:wilshere ramsey sanchez koscienly cech have once been in team of the season
    chambers and chamberlain have been nominated for the golden boy award
    mesut ozil has been nominated for the balon d`or award
    walcott has once been arsenals top scorer
    now i wonder how all these players cant lead us to the title
    my guess is Wenger.right? Just a wild guess.It could also be the board or the fans
    I have heard people talking crap that chambers and debuchy are not arsenal quality its all nonsense

  2. Yeah, it’s my mistake mate not to buy world class striker.

    Do you know what Benzema mean by saying to “all clowns”?

    did he referring me or you or other people?

  3. Overmars was a winger. 🙂

    True, Berkkamp, Wright and Henry of course were proper strikers, as was Van Persie only on his last season for us. Anelka is an ish, he never repeated his 19 goals in one season because he forced a move, and never had the form he had with us at any other club. There was Alan Smith before then and of course the awesome Frank Stapleton in my day. I always considered Merse as a striker too (a favourite player pf mine).

    As for your question, we definitely could do with a striker like them today, but there are none available on the market to buy because the selling team knows themselves there are no replacements available for them to buy. If we did buy one, the 7 out of 10 will not be able to handle the rigour of the Premiership and not perform as well as they did in their previous team.

    Wenger wants old fashioned centre-forwards who play very deep (virtually midfield) and make runs forward, hold the ball up, etc. The strikers we want to see are the ones who play high with their back to goal, who are strong enough to barge through centre-halves without going to ground at the slightest tap. In other words: Not Walcott.

    Giroud is very strong and heavy, he is also good in the air and can hold up the ball and do that pseudo midfielder thing well enough for Wenger to keep picking him as the spearhead.

    The last striker I have seen and wanted at Arsenal over recent years was Dzeko who Premiership experienced and would do a great job as a first choice striker for us instead of 3rd choice at City.

    1. #Arsenal1Again:
      Are you stupid or retard? How many good strikers were traded this summer?? none was better than Giroud?? how low you guys going to go to support Wenger? when there is nothing left of our great team? let me tell even I am so pissed off with Wenger and owners, but every Saturday in Houston I get up with the hope of watching Arsenal play. I have been frustrated to see how all other teams patched up their team, and field a reasonable balance team only Arsenal and Wenger leave a big whole in Defense like last year, plus striker issue which is rolled over to this season.
      Grow up, and smell the fresh scent of coffee. Arsenal team is in miserable state, Westham crushes us at Emirate, Zagreb defeat us, even with 63% possession!!! what this number tells you, Simply no finisher no clinical goal scorer to convert possession to goals. Lots of goals.

  4. I am kind of tired of all comments saying God know what about glory days and strikers, so here it is from Wikipedia. Our best striker ever. And I am a huge fan of Titi since his days in Monaco, so this is NOT for salmming him down but to say that we are actually not far behind. The difference? the defence dudes. and Whover doesnt accept it is simply denying the truth.

    1999/2000 games league 35. goals 20
    2000/2001 35 games. 17 goals
    01/02 33/24
    02/03 37/ 24
    03/04 37/30 (5th year with Arsenal)
    04/05 32/ 25
    05/06 32/27
    06/07 17/10

    You can also check cups and International games, but the total average of ALL games and ALL goals is 0.63.

        1. Girouds goals at Arsenal
          Year/ Games/ goals
          12-12/ 34/ 11
          13-14/36/16
          14-15/ 27/ 14
          total 97/ 41

          0.42.

          so, you see, as I said, that we are actually not far behind.

          Bear in mind the other goal scorers of the Titi era….and the defence and goalies…

          1. and bear in mind that I didnt mention Giroud because the article said when we had superbe strikers etc or something like that.
            It was just showing that our BEST striker EVER had these stats.

            Now it should be compared to all those back in the time strikers to ALL of today.

            1. I am also trying to find the scorelines of those glory days, because I do remember a considerable amount of 1-0 games.
              Seaman, Mad Jens. Keown, Adams, Campbell.
              U know…one goal and then the defence took care..

          2. Thanks for the effort mate.

            But please don’t get mad if I ask you this:

            Is minimum 20 goals per season, to be asking too much for a regular No.9?

            he is our main strike for crying out loud. Yes, of course, I would be glad if he can prove me wrong this season,

            but I just can’t see that gonna happen.

            No offense mate.

            Thanks for the stats too. You too nice.

  5. Ahhh, the rose-tinted specs are out as we gaze back to a time when we allegedly crushed everyone we met through sheer volume of goals. Nonsense. I can remember all the strikers we have had in the last 30 years. I question the author’s memory though and ask whether he was at Highbury week in, week out to watch the guys he eulogises over. We can swoon and dream all we want about times long gone but the prosaic truth was that they had as many indifferent days as our present lot. And it may shock some of our younger fans but they missed chances as well. All the players mentioned except Henry and Bergkamp were very good – TH14 and DB10 were all-time greats. We should be proud that we had two all-time greats in our team and appreciate the fact rather than whine our present guys don’t match up to icons of the game. But whilst it may fit the narrative to denigrate our present team, and everyone is free to label Walcott and Giroud as pub footballers with zero technique and ability the unfortunate upshot is that they compare favourably on the goal stats. How does that work? Context and perspective is sadly almost entirely absent on this site – people with agendas in tandem with short and selective memories are a sad species.

    1) Overmars scored 6 and 7 league goals for us in his last 2 seasons. Would we annoint TW as a “titan” with that sort of return? He spent 4 seasons at Barcelona and got 15 league goals. He had a league goal/game ratio of 0.19 for Arsenal. Walcott, also a wide forward, has a 0.24 ratio. Walcott has also scored more league goals than another legend who played in his position, Ljungberg, and in less appearances to boot. All sad but true. Either Walcott is making good use of his alleged limited ability or Ljungberg and Overmars were serial underperformers.

    2) Wright scored more than 20 non-penalty league goals (NPGs) just once in his Arsenal career in 1992 when Arsenal won nothing and we came 4th. Think on that, he spent 6 seasons at Arsenal with league NPG tallies in the teens. For all the myth and hype we weren’t rolling teams over at will for the 7 seasons when Wrighty was playing – you would be forgiven for thinking we romped the league every year and kicked ass in Europe. We won the league once with IW by one point scoring just 68 goals in an era where United were the only challenger.

    3) League NPG ratios for our striker “legends” and “titans”: Henry (0.59), Wright (0.50), Van Persie (0.45), Adebayor (0.39), Kanu (0.24), Wiltord (0.29), Bergkamp (0.26), Smith (0.32). But we know we measure OG’s contribution differently and his 0.42 ratio is a crying disgrace.

    4) And the author should mention Alexis if he wants to be taken seriously. He scored more last season than Bergkamp, Kanu and Wiltord ever did and more than RvP did on 6 of his 8 seasons and Adebayor did in 3 of his 4 seasons. Alexis does count as part of this team doesn’t he?

    If you weren’t at Highbury watching these guys admit it in your posts. If you weren’t present at any of Henry’s 100+ league matches where he drew a blank just say so. If you cannot recall Van Persie’s first 6 years of nil contribution let this be a reminder for you. Let’s have some proper perspective and context. Otherwise quit with the quaint nostalgia offered up by YouTube’s sample highlight videos.

    1. @jonestown!!!! Where have you been man I’ve needed your assistance on here everyone is being so emotional, only me @budd and @josh, have been using our heads

      1. I’ve been here Goonsquad8 – just reading but not posting. There are times when it is just not worth it. Cheers.

    2. Overmars was a winger
      Kanu was a supporting striker

      And every single one of them scored from outside the box , within the box and created their own chances .
      How many times did we see those players singlehandedly win a match from a losing position .
      How many times did they give you a spectacular goal to put in your collection.?
      I cannot remember them collecting red cards like giroud ?
      Whether you like it or not , giroud is a limited striker . The only difference Between him and chamack is that they he has had time in the team and has no competition. Chamack was never given the opportunity.

  6. I may be still too young to tell of the past now, but from the little I know, G12 has never scored more than 20 league goals in a season. Henry and Wright both did, As for RVP, we all new from his abilities that he had such potentials to score above 20 if he stays fit. And for some of the strikers you just mentioned, they were never top9 strikers or first choice (Kanu, Wiltord, Freddie,) like giroud yet they got us some fair amount of goals. Even Adebayor got over 20 league goals in a season, Anelka got us 19 league goals a season as our top9 I suppose, Pires one of my favourites scored 15 leagues goals, one more than Girouds best 14 as a winger in a 442 formation and consistently got into double figures each season bar his first. These guys were way above Giroud and can create their on goals, never solely dependent on other to score, they were complete footballers.

  7. rvp 🙁 🙁 🙁
    hopefully the last legendary striker who ever left us 🙁 🙁
    if we ever have one again 🙁 🙁 🙁

  8. Do you people actually remember the last time the world respected us? The striker problem is the smallest we currently have.

  9. Suddenly we now have those we refer To as AKBz. It’s just one Arsenal though. No comment.

  10. Don’t hate Giroud, don’t blame him. He won’t get better simply because he’s not good enough!
    The last real CF we had was RvP who needed 6 seasons to finally delivered!
    We need world class top consistent players on the positions that needed (not only upfront)!! And a new captain as well! Someone doesn’t start every game on the bench.

    1. Can piersie was an always injured player in a team full of bad players .
      Remember
      Senderos
      Djourou
      Bendthner
      Denilson
      Vela

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