Will France double earn Giroud starting place for Arsenal v Man City?

While there will be a whole list of factors for Arsene Wenger to consider as he prepares the Arsenal team to face Man City at home in a crucial Premier League clash next weekend, with the fitness of the players not least among them, he will surely be looking at the current form of the various players as a guide to which 11 gunners will be in the starting line-up.

In that case, with Lucas Perez having picked up an injury and with both of our England international forwards Danny Welbeck and Theo Walcott not involved during the international break, Olivier Giroud must be feeling fairly confident of his place in the Arsenal team next weekend.

The France international scored twice for Les Bleus as they eased to a 3-1 win over Luxembourg this weekend, with a close range finish to open the scoring and then a late header to secure the points after both teams had scored from the penalty spot.

They may not have been the most spectacular strikes but a goal is a goal and the fact that Didier Deschamps kept the big centre forward on for the whole game tells you that he played well. That double also puts him into the top 10 leading goalscorers for the France national team and to withing three of the former Arsenal striker Sylvain Wiltord who took 92 games to reach that number while Giroud has only played 60.

The big man’s striker record at club level has been very good as well this season, especially when you consider how little he has played. So will his latest goals persuade Arsene Wenger to start him against Man City?

Bob.

8 Comments

  1. I really can’t believe that OG has spent most of the year coming off the bench. Alexis can score just as well the left as from the right because he is very mobile. To have a player that can score from headers but have no one to cross the ball on this team is a shame.
    It was never about scoring goals with Olivier but just having that physical presence that 2 or 3 players have to defend on crosses which leaves the ball to wide open attackers, this summer seeing how well he worked with Greizeman, I just wished he could have found that with Sanchez but it didn’t for some reason.

    1. Different players.. Griezzy likes the ball played in front of him. Sanchez wants the ball at his feet

    2. Giroud is a waste of space..has been for the last 3 years. Glad Wenger is finally waking up and putting him and Ramsey on the bench where they belong. Giroud would not play for Chelsea, Man utd, City, Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern. So I don’t see why he should start for us unless we are admitting we are a smaller club than all those mentioned..

  2. I was surprised that they went with Giroud, with all the young players in France now I thought they’d go nuts and give everyone a cap. Arsene recently highlighted how strong France are and I must say they have got one heck of allot of options. But I look at our team and I’m thinking where’s all our French players.

  3. Scoring two against Luxembourg or three against Villas last season when there was nothing to play for, is different than scoring against Bayern or City. Against those teams you only get a few chances and we all remember what Giroud did with his chances ion our last game against Bayern.

    Last season Wenger removed Sanchez from the left wing because he correctly pointed out Sanchez is too predictable on the left where he wants to cut to his shooting leg making him easier to defend against. Yet (to punish?) recently he moved him back to the left again. That is a dubious move given his previous comments. Sanchez is our best striker we played our best games with him as striker. It seems typical silly Wenger to me to keep experimenting with different players as central striker when your best central striker (Sanchez) was available.

    At this stage of the season and our cycle, I don’t really think it does matter who plays against City and in what position. If Wenger knew the problem he would have fixed it a long time ago, if these players had character and spine they would not have lost 10 – 2 to Bayern or to Liverpool or to West Brom even if my mother had managed them. Put these two factors together and you realize the outcome of the City game rests more on City then on Arsene.

  4. I think it was Charles Nicholas who said it best: “Giroud was never going to be the player who is going to win you the title but he’s one of the players who could help you win it”. Describes him perfectly, IMHO. Is he world class? I don’t think so (even though he performs extremely well for France). But he’s a great squad player, and a good option to have both on the bench, and to start in certain games. How many times has he saved our bacon this season? I lost count, TBH. Yes, he can miss an easy sitter once in a while, but he can also score a screamer (that scissor kick was something else), and help us earn some points. So personally, I don’t get the stick that Giroud gets from some fans.

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