It has been said many times, but it is still true that Olivier Giroud has suffered greatly at the hands of Arsenal fans over the last few years. Has this week’s amazing Scorpion goal against Crystal Palace now given him the recognition he craves? Arsene Wenger thinks that THAT goal will never be forgotten, and reckons we need to remember that he always scores important goals.
“It was surprising, exceptional, efficient and beautiful so I would say he will be remembered forever for this goal,” Le Prof said on Arsenal.com.
“But I liked as well that it was at the end of an exceptional move and he had a surprising reflex and an efficient one, but Olivier Giroud scores great goals, and important ones.
“Maybe we do not always remember that he scores great goals, but also important goals at key moments for the team.
“I think he has improved his link up play since he has arrived and in front of goal as well. He is a top striker, who is a top-quality man as well, so I am very pleased that he can compete for us.
“It also shows you how quickly things can change because two months ago everyone said, ‘Giroud doesn’t play’, then today he is a hero.
“When it didn’t go well for him, he worked and that is something that I rate. Our job is to be ready for a chance, and he worked hard when he didn’t play and now he gets rewarded, and that is right.”
How many times had Giroud looked finished at Arsenal? Especially after his 14 game non-scoring run last season. Does he just needs lots of competition to play his best?
Can we now say, as Wenger just did, that he is an Arsenal hero and will never be forgotten?
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Could not call him a hero until he fires us to the league or cl, but he will be remembered forever for that goal, he is now an arsenal legend (noone saw that coming)
Parents will tell their kids about that goal, grandparents will tell their grandkids, it will find a home among every best arsenal goal countdown, every premier league goals countdown.
Olivier Giroud has written his name in gunners history forever.
what a gr8 goal that was, but calling him a legend because of that is going too far.. we’ve seen people scoring spectacular goals like Adebayor’s against the spuds, Van Persie’s wonder screamers, Ozil’s UCL goal, but non of them is a legend.. we know our legends and their statues shining bright
I’ve said from day one that he is and will always be a target man. Not someone that maneuvers around defenders that allows him to go one on one with a keeper. I’ve seen the comparisons to every striker out there but his job is different than other strikers. Thus being a target not a striker.
Congrats to OG for working hard and not getting down on himself or his team. Here’s hoping that he hits the 100 goal mark this season!
Ibrahimovic now ahead of Sanchez in goal scorers chart. I think moving Sanchez to the wings might see his goal tally suffer 🙁
It really shouldn’t he had the best chance of the game with a point blank follow. He is always around goal, has a really strong leg and a tireless motor to get in scoring positions.
Unfortunately O.G. and all footballers are at the mercy of the fickle fans of the team they support. If they score a goal or play well one week they are heroes, if they miss an easy chance or play badly then they are rubbish. If Giroud had not scored his goal against Palace and we had drawn 0-0 everybody would have slagged him off for missing that open goal earlier and he would have been called rubbish. He scores that goal and all of a sudden he’s a hero and world class. I would prefer to wait until the end of the season and judge him over the whole season and not just 10 seconds of improvisation.
He only missed because the ball was in front of him, Caragher ..lol.
Giroud is a very good player. Whether on the pitch or bench he’s good to have for Arsenal.
sanchez is my favorite player but truth to be told he misses more easyer chance than giroud but we fail to recognize it because we have such hight regard of him in fact all of our players misses those easy chance that other team in the league players put away very easily
Exactly right…..Sanchez does miss a lot of chances as do Arsenal as a team, we must have the lowest conversion percentage of chances created to goals scored and until we rectify this we will always struggle. We seem to have a problem when we score first and seem to relax and not go all out to finish teams off which costs us games.
We’ve actually got one of the best conversion rates this season. All strikers miss chances, even easy ones. But it’s whether they miss the next one, or the next, they make up for it and move onto the next one.
Giroud will never be a world class striker and neither is he worthy of mentioning in the same breath of Henry or Berkamp. Sure he scored a great goal and sure he came off the bench to score some important goals this season. But he is doesn’t have the talent of Sanchez or Henry and he is inconsistent. He is a great work horse but has limited talent not in the least as a result of his lack of speed. He went missing for 15 games last season.
Let’s appreciate him for what he can bring to this team but let’s not promote him to hero. That word should be reserved for players who win their team a title or who score 30 goals in the PL.
Sanchez is the better striker with a more all round game, scored with his head, scored from outside the box, scored tap-ins and made his own goals and that is only after less than half a season of playing the central striker position.
Giroud has two main weaknesses
Lack of speed
Lack of a right foot
Only seven players have scored more than 30 goals in a PL season…
2 of the 4 since 2000 have played for us.
I love Giroud and her family will always be a memorable gunner. But I still think that Alexis is better up front than Giroud as his 12 goals indicates. I also think that Giroud is a fantastic SuperSub
I am fine with Giroud continuing but as soon as he stops scoring Alexis should go back to CF. CF is good for Alexis as
1. Scores goals
2. Less running than on wing so he will last longer during season and less chance of injury.
3. Can score over 20 goals up front, if given a chance
I think our best attack is: Walcott (right) Ozil (CAM) Lucas/Iwobi (left) and Alexis up front
Alexis 12 goals and however many assists have been great. But Giroud has played like 350 mins and produced a lot of decisive goals. It’s not really fair to point to the overall tally when he hasn’t been a key member of the squad or had many starts so far this season.
we have seen him for seasons, dragging us away from the title. the less minutes he plays, the better.. Sanchez owns that central striker role by now, OG can keep coming from the bench
Please don’t say anything that doesn’t support Giroud as a hero and our best striker option. This post is meant to promote Giroud so don’t refer to Sanchez being better or to the past or to Giroud’s lack of speed.
Giroud is a hero and Sanchez should move over and accept he has to go to a less effect role of wingman and supporter of our hero. Don’t understand Wenger got this one so wrong for the better part of half a season. The Sanchez experiment failed.
Alexis is almost at Girouds average season tally three games ago, if he’d played in the middle on the last two he’d possibly be there by now. Alexis has worked perfectly well, it’s not an experiment, he’s our best striker. Giroud is our second best striker, he’s good from the bench because Alexis and the others ware down teams, giving Giroud a slight leg up. Even Sunday Giroud was able to press defenders who looked tired, Giroud could do this because we’ve been resting him. Play Giroud every week and it’s not too long before he hits the wall. I don’t know how some people can ignore Alexis (1/2 season) nearing Girouds 15 goal mark, give or take. Then his passing, assists, running, battling, quality, it’s not even a fair race.
@ break on through – could not agree more. It is strange that there even is a discussion about who our best option is at striker.
To me, Giroud is best when used as a sub and the occasional game as a starter, but there should not be a doubt who is our best striker and that is Sanchez by a mile.
funny
Nope… He scores classy goals and assists every season and still gets called a ‘lamp-post.’
He’ll have a game where he misses a few chances soon enough and people will be back on his back as they always do.
This is the first season where he has been kept fresh and am excited to see how far he’ll push the second half of this season. Other seasons people gloss over the sheer amount of games he played but with other options at striker now we should get the best from him.
@josh – to call him a lamp post would be unfair, to call him a great striker or a hero would be an exaggeration.
To me, he is not good enough to win a team a major trophy and he is not of the same caliber as Sanchez, Costa, Aguiro even old Ibra. This does not make him a lamp post or a special player.
I think it is quite silly we are even having this debate. To me, the debate should be about whether he can be helpful to the team and in what capacity.
I think he has proven that he can be very helpful as super sub and as an occasional starter when we are coping with injuries. Why is that such a bad thing?
Have you watched United much this season? Ibra has heated up this last month… But with pretty much all the games they dropped points he missed a tonne of chances. If it was Giroud he would’ve been crucified!
He’s no hero still. He’s just finally playing the role he should’ve been since he came to Arsenal, and that is a 2nd striker, an alternative option for Arsenal. He should never had been our No 1. choice. He’s a good player, but in terms of launching Arsenal to the title he has never done it. Of course there are other players on the pitch, but Giroud in the past (and even in that same game) is known for missing easy chances.
i will call giroud if he repeats that great goal sometime again . as far as i am concerned he did not mean it , it was a once in a lifetime fluke. he is nothing more than an average striker.