Stats say goal-a-game Giroud the difference for Arsenal

Who knows where Arsenal would be in the Premier League table if our France international front man Olivier Giroud had not suffered that freak damage to his Tibia while blocking a clearance in the last minute of our game against Everton in just the second EPL game of the season.

Giroud had just rescued a point for us with a fantastic header when he picked up his injury and the Gunners then had to do without him until he announced his comeback in style with that thunderous strike against Manchester United. Who knows whether we would have beat our old enemies if Giroud had been fit enough to start that game, but the stats on his finishing power this season, reported by eplindex.com certainly suggest so.

His double against Newcastle on Saturday, as well as doubling his league tally, made Giroud’s strike rate an excellent one every 81 minutes. That is almost twice as prolific as Alexis and more than four times better than Welbeck. It is almost on a par with Sergio Aguero and is better than Diego Costa.

Who would have thought that we would be relying on the big man for finishing power, but it is a fact that we were making and missing a lot of chances without him and we seem to be much more efficient with Giroud leading the line. He hasn’t got any Premier League assists yet but is already linking up really well with his team mates and we know that setting up goals is as big a part of his game as scoring, so they will come.

So is keeping Giroud fit they key to success for Arsenal?

Tags Alexis welbeck

15 Comments

  1. We’ll, I’m happy with him at the moment and long may it continue, but let’s see what happens next few weeks before comparing him to Aguero or Costa.

    He has been a decent striker for us and scored aprox 43 goals which is very good but far from the striker we need. Teams that have won the premiership over the last decade plus have included strikers like Aguero, RVP, Rooney, Tevez, Drogba, Van Nistleroy, Henry, Bergkamp. And this year most probably Costa. It’s essential to have a WC striker to win the PL in my honest opinion

    1. To a point I can agree but think it is far from that simple.

      1) Half of all PL winners have not had the leading goalscorer in their team.
      2) Every one of the strikers you mention above had an immense defensive line-up behind them – the often spouted truism that defence wins titles holds more weight imo than a WC striker.
      3) We had 7 or 8 seasons with TH14 and DB10 and “only” won the the title twice.
      4) Chelsea could of and should have won the title last year with effectively no striker – it can be done.
      5) We blew the title by getting mugged big time in some key games – not because of a lack of WC striker.
      6) L’pool had the 2 best strikers in the league last year and won nothing.
      7) We had RVP for 9 seasons and won nothing – no guarantees.
      8) Messi, Suarez, Neymar, RVP, Falcao, Rooney, Aguero, Cavani not, or unlikely to to win a league title this season – no guarantees.
      9) The best (1st div/premier) league goal totals for the players you mention tell another story as well. Tevez’s best return was 23 (very good but not astounding) and City did not win the PL. Rooney (27 goals) and didn’t win the PL. Aguero (23 goals) and City did not win the PL. Drogba scored just 10 & 12 goals when Chelsea crushed all before them in 2004-2006.

      So helpful but a long way from essential IMO. And what about Alexis? I am not sure in all this quite what label people are pinning on our boy Sanchez. Is he WC – yes or pretty close to it I’d say. Many on here will insist he is not a striker – whatever you want that term to mean. All I will say if he is not a striker than neither is Ronaldo. Also Aguero, Tevez and Bergkamp all play(ed) predominantly as secondary strikers in a pair.

  2. Fabregas is talking about the Quadruple. I don’t know why it gets to me. Just does 🙁
    Guess I wish Wenger had got Fabregas and Costa. Maybe he did but Chelsea bid higher.

    1. @fred – please try to understand, Arsene could never get Costa. as much as we try and stay oblivious to it, there is politics behind transfers. Costa has Mendes as his agent, who is also Mourinho’s agent. So any player whose agent is Mendes is NO WAY happening to come to Arsenal.

      1. Yes, the Costa deal was done and dusted a long time before he arrived at CFC. As you said the Mourinho/Mendes axis is powerful – lot of players in Spain/Portugal where this grubby duo will have first dibs. And as for Fabregas…………zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

    2. Fabregas is a bad luck charm, in a few years chelsea will become mediocre team. A team with fabregas as the main man has won nothing

  3. Too early to judge him and compare with the likes of Sanchez , Costa and Aguro . Lets wait for five more games and then we can judge his finishing ability.
    Remember he missed a sitter gains Stoke. But yes, he slowly and slowly he is looking a top top striker.
    The whole team played really well against New Castle…
    Can we beat Liverpool. Man U won 3-0.
    We can really take hold of the 4rth Place if we beat pool on Sunday.
    We really need OX to be fit for that game.

    1. Yes – and if Ollie G has that goals to minutes ratio at the end of the season then no-one will be complaining but nearly a goal a game is Messi/Ronaldo territory – reality is that OG has no chance. But lets face it – very dodgy stat based over a very short time scale. Think he was about 0.4 goals per game last year – 0.5 goals a game is very decent striker stat so lets see if he can just crank it up a bit more.

  4. Wenger is building Arsenal to the PL next season. he has been putting the pieces together every season. He tried before but the scum ran off to Man City, and Barca.

    We need two players to challenge for the title and Europe. the next two transfer windows determines Arsenal long the future.

    We have good players and youngsters in the pipeline.

    Let me quote Jose, yes that pompous ass Jose, “Wenger is building a team piece by piece”
    Mo recognizes that.

    1. That pompous Mo also said last season that he will win the PL with 2 more signings (Costa,Fabregas) and look whats happening exactly what hes said he didnt have to build chelsea he just got 2nd last season talking about little horses and big horses, but he was right Chelsea wher2 players away once he gets them he will win the PL he knows wenger is building an Enterprise rather than just a stop gap team Wenger is cementing Arsenals future for the next 10 years so he doesnt have to reitre and watch His legacy Rot in hell.

  5. Giroud almost on a par with Sergio Aguero and is better than Diego Costa???
    Come on, no one, not even Giroud’s mum thinks he is as good or better than Aguero or Costa.
    Stats that were compiled during what amounted to poor performances or capitulations by other teams don’t really count for Jack.

  6. Ok I will say it again. Not a striker but a target man. The players on each side of him and in front of him play balls to him and then make the run off that pass. What he does well is follow the play and if there is a cross he is usually in the right space to make contact with it.
    It is up to the wing players like Sanchez and Walcott to score goals from the wings at the same rate as the target in the middle.
    Oh and Ramsey plays on the attack much better with a target.
    Last year with Santi and Jack or Tom on the wings not much was happening. No crosses whatsoever and I do rememember all the crap he was getting.

    1. Agree. For reasons probably only known to AW he is fixated as to the type of player he wants at the top of the park. Everyone on here was wanting a Ba, Benteke, Bony type if they couldn’t get the biggest names (Cavani, Suarez etc etc) – strikers that are selfish (and I mean that in a positive way) with reasonable pace playing on the shoulder of the last man. OG has many detractors – mostly Arsenal fans to be honest as he gets quite copious praise from pundits – but whatever his shortcomings he is bit of a rarity in what he does and what he offers. Comparing him to Costa or Aguero is ridiculous on so many levels but mainly because they entirely different to him. Seems clear to me that AW looks at the front 3 as a unit and it is the aggregate of what they bring that interests him as opposed to the “lone-wolf” talents of a big name hitman. Walcott, Sanchez and Giroud are each capable of 20+ goals (all comps) and don’t think there are many other teams in PL that could match that. From my point of view I have not spent too many moments in the last 18 years worrying about our ability to score – spent most of the time fretting about conceding so I am not concerned or worried about our strike options of Giroud/Welbeck/Sanchez/Walcott and Podolski.

  7. Giroud is an unsung hero for our club, a player that not many appreciate, but who contributes so so much to our game.

    It seems that some measure a great striker by their goal stats alone. If stats told the whole story we would all speak in stat speak and walk around like binary drones with only positive and negative or yes and no, or o and 1 for our output.

    As we al know, the truth is always somewhere in the middle. Not so much black and white as the grey mass in the middle.

    Giroud is a very good player for us, and I for one wish people on here would stop the dislike and start showing the appreciation!! 😀

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