Should Arsenal worry about Giroud’s latest poor game?

It might seem a little harsh to get on the back of the Arsenal and France international star Olivier Giroud this week, after the striker put in a disappointing and ineffective performance against Burnley. We did win after all and Giroud has been on fire lately so perhaps he deserves some leeway. But when our centre forward struggles, it seems that the whole attacking side of our game struggles and Wenger seems reluctant to use Welbeck instead of Giroud.

It will be a real cause for concern if this was not a blip and the Frenchman struggles to impose himself on Reading in the FA cup semi-final this weekend. Failing to win this cup game against a Championship side would be a big blow to Arsenal, not just because it would end our best chance of a trophy, but for the knock on effect it could have in our final Premier League games.

Arsenal fans do have the comfort of knowing that the last time Giroud had a poor game, and he was much worse against Monaco, it did not negatively affect him and in fact made him bounce back in fantastic style. On the other hand though, it was strange that Giroud was lacklustre against Burnley as he should be fresher after the international break and with a week since the win over Liverpool.

Perhaps Giroud had allowed a bit of complacency to creep into his mind and will now buck his ideas up for Reading and the games to follow. If not we could have a big problem on our hands. What do you think?

Tags Burnley Reading welbeck Wenger

27 Comments

  1. Drought is high on this site. Not many visitors lately I see so let’s shoot a $hitty article. Unfounded and idiotic.

    1. The author maybe jumping the gun a bit with it being only one game but for some fans there is still a doubt around Giroud, we know he can have patches were the gooner in row z should have worn a helmet and there is the fact that most fans would still like a top striker. Wanting another striker might have more to do with Welbeck than it does Giroud but up until this latest spell from Giroud prolific isnt a word i would describe to him, hard working clever and a good standard of finishing is how i seen him before coming back.

      Recently he has looked top notch, up there with the best of them. I think thats the worry, are we seeing the real Giroud finally or is the old form going to creep in… where he is sometimes good to very good then suddenly bad. I know they all have off days but i want the Giroud of last number of months on a fairly consistent basis… surely not too much to ask.

      1. You can replace the name Giroud with any other football player and your speech will still be valid. Let’s move on.

        1. Fir point but what if i say Cazorla Coquelin Koscielney Ospina Sanchez… these players dont bring doubt, they may bring a bad game but not in the same way. Cazorlas abilities on ball is unrivaled, Coq we get the same commitment if not same display, Boss rarely lets us down, Ospina is only what we know of him right now, Sanchez is the gift that keeps on giving whether goals assists tackling passing or pressuring.

          May have some truth so i say fair point but wrong none the less.

      2. Every striker has a goal drought, you just like to use Giroud as a scapegoat and it’s shameful really. He didn’t score because there was no effort from the midfield, at this time of the season most of them start to burn out from over-playing.

    1. Thank you sir @Goonsquad8. Who wrote this thing? Giroud did not have a terrible performance. He had no service and that was part of our game plan! Wenger instructed our midfielders to just keep the ball the moment we go one goal up and they did that. Giroud kept asking for the ball but Ramsey and Bellerin just kept passing the damn thing back over and over until they wound down the clock. Giroud had no service. Please name how many times Giroud touched the ball or had a goal scoring opportunity? We were so scared of a counter attack that our basic strategy after going a goal up was to keep the ball? Unbelievable….

      1. Attacking football can take a toll on the player, sometimes the 1-0 tactic allows the midfield to take it easy and prevent injury.

      2. You made a good comment and I agree with nearly all of it except “Wenger instructed our midfield” it doesn’t work like that. The manager prepares the team but it is the team decide what they do.

        I think Wenger would have wanted them to be slightly more aggressive. But they choose to control and see it out.

  2. I thought Giroud wasn’t really effective against Burnley as they generally kept us out of their danger area. I would have thrown in Walcott and played him as CF. His movement and pace would have troubled the Burnley defenders greatly.

  3. may be the whole attacking trio played poor that’s why giroud struggled.may be its not a rocket science.

  4. Any true footballer knows that the occasional bad game is unavoidable. Its not do to lack of desire or effort, sometimes it just seems like the ball is mad at you.
    I will say that once DW23 came in, I thought AW should have brought him on sooner cause u could tell Danny Boy was up for it as soon as he came on. But I can’t blame AW for sticking w OG12 considering his recent form. Im just happy to have 2 solid strikers right now

  5. There was no service whatsoever. I think the game plan was just switch the ball and let them chase.

  6. I wouldnt worry about it! Giroud was just unlucky, but im supporting him to put in a goal or two in chelsea’s net next week! Coyg!

  7. Giroud is just not good enough…

    we need a world class big name big tag finisher to lead our attack next season….

    1. You realize Giroud is equal with Costa in total goal production (all competitions) and is far better than Costa in #goals produced per game (all competitions). And Costa is considered to be an EPL superstar!!

      Costa has 19 goals and 3 assists in 35 appearances this season – he thus has produced .63 goals per appearance.

      Giroud has 18 goals and 4 assists in 27 appearances this season – he thus has produced .81 goals per appearance.

      Facts are stubborn things unless you are willing to discount them as not relevant to the fantasy world you live in.

  8. Love Giroud and I’m very happy he’s in our team, the only thing he lacks is pace other than that we have a damn good striker in our ranks.

    OT: might be some truth in us chasing Dybala, been reading a lot about the president saying we definitely are after him but Juve are in pole position even though Wenger denied it. Then I just heard Christian Vieri say that he heard when Tevez leaves for Boca Juniors Cavani will be his replacement. Maybe Wenger is being sly again and I sure wouldn’t mind Dybala to replace Podolski.

  9. Some people can sell their souls just for a few more clicks on their website

    If only spurs fans would beat Kane to death for not scoring since he last played for England or Mancs When Rooney didn’t have a shot on target for a decade or Benteke who took forever to come from injury unlike Giroud

    Well be proud of yourself, you have taken it upon youself to set a precedent for a severe bashing once he has another bad game.

    Nothing wrong with questioning a players motivation but after the kind of run he’s had ,this has witch hunt written all over it shame on you.

    1. Thanks for that. I believe this is nothing more than desperation for something to write about.

  10. This article is one of the best jokes of the season, it is pathetic. How can someone sit down and compose this type of write-up. It sound stupid and hilarious at the sametime to me (dont mean to be rude). Olly G had been firing in all canons and all of the sudden he became a bad player just because he fired blank against those bully burnley and it is an unfair comment. He scored 10 goals in the past 11 games and you called that a drought, you could have conjured a better article than this. Previewing the game against burnley, Olly was given no chance on the ball and was over crowded, pushed, hassled, and bruised repeatedly, didnt expect him to score game by game but he had broken all barriers even in the face of critism (constructive or not) and with all the media nonsense and transfer talks and he stood tall (plus he the most handsome lad in epl, the GOLDEN MIRROR attests for that). Bring in Dybala, I still believe Olly will find a way as he always does and he can only do better.. God bless Arsenal

  11. Bob, this is a timely and a good observation by you. I have read the comments of some Gooners on the topic matter. But it appears they don’t appreciate what is currently at stake for Arsenal. I think some Gunners are complacent or are trying to become mediocres. Our strikers cannot at this critical period of Arsenal season afford to falter. The stake is too high to allow any lack of sufficient goals crept-in into the Gunners games. Giroud is Arsenal main striker and he knows his responsibility is to be scoring goals or assist to score for Arsenal in conjunction with Sanchez and Welbeck. Unfortunately the latter is not a starter due to his profigacy in front of goal for Arsenal. That makes it harder on Olivier to response supremely in any Arsenal game to score. And he has been doing that but at Burnley. Some kudos to him. Any goals from any other Gunners apart of those expected from Sanchez. And Ramsey to some extend are highly welcome. But just supposing Ramsey did not score that away goal game winner at Burnley? What kind of result would Arsenal have had? 2 dropped points? Which would have put an end to our title challenge bid. Enh? that our title challenge is still kept alive with that Ramsey’s goal. I think anything that will make Giroud and Sanchez to have any off-day in any of the remaining 8 Arsenal games, MUST be totally avoided by them. Because the responsibility on them for Arsenal is so huge at this juncture as we moving close to stardom.

  12. What we need do is get a quality,worldclass striker.. Pinning our hopes next season to Giroud and Welbeck alone in 60 games to keep scoring in all of it is pure suicide..

    Look at the title winning teams, United 07/08/09 they had Rooney,Tevez,Berbatov ..Chelsea 09/10 drogba,Anelka,Sturridge ..City aguero,Balotelli,Dzeko,Tevez ; 13/14 Aguero,Dzeko,Jovetic,Negredo United 12/13 RVP,Rooney,Chicharito,Welbeck… Chelsea 14/15 Costa,Remy,Drogba..

    Costa n Remy are presently injured but its no problem because Drogba is still available..

    We need at list 3strikers to go the length of the season… 4 if we wanna challenge for all trophies.

    Get Higuain.

    1. Why include Sturridge and Welbeck in your impressive lists – one goal each in those seasons. So Chelsea are going to waltz home this season and win the league with Costa (19), Remy (5) and Drogba (3) – 27 goals between them. Should add in Hazard on 12. Meanwhile we have Giroud (14), Sanchez (14), Welbeck (4) – 32 total, and Ramsey (5) and Carzorla (7) and we have no chance!?

  13. Giroud didn’t even play badly. He had no service into the box and most of the time we were trying to be too intricate around the box to get players free. After our goal we seemed content to just control the game, probe and see if we could nick a second instead of trying to force it and leave ourselves open. The ball just never got into a position for him to be able to apply a finish or attempt to beat the last man. Burnley also defended very well for most of the game – a team with less concentration would have got decimated.

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