The big Arsenal centre forward is in the news again today and once again it is not for the sort of reason the 28-year old would prefer. Olivier Giroud was given the nod by the France manager Didier Deschamps to start their friendly game against Serbia and after missing a few chances and getting booed by the French crowd, he was replaced by Karim Benzema with about half an hour to play.
So the Giroud bashers have been given more ammunition and boy do they love to fire it. But I would like to stick up for the big man and explain why I think Arsenal have no reason to panic and plenty of reasons to keep faith with our striker.
Okay so he has not quite found his shooting boots yet this season, despite scoring a great volley against Crystal Palace. But he will. Giroud does thrive on confidence, like most strikers, and goals provide that confidence, but the Frenchman has proved himself mentally strong and resilient before, plenty of times.
Maybe his worst moment as a Gunner was in the Champions League knockout phase against Monaco last season. He missed a hatful of chances and just one of them would have seen us progress to the quarter final. And so he was slaughtered by his own fans and in the football media, which would have many players hanging their heads and struggling to recover.
Giroud scored the opening goal in a vital Premier League win over Everton in the very next game and then did the same in the next game at QPR. In fact he scored seven in our next seven games, the only time he drew a blank was against Man United in the FA cup and he only came on with 20 minutes left.
So we can reasonably expect Giroud to keep trying and start scoring. Apart from that, he does bring a lot more to the team; namely physical presence, a target man, link up play, great technical skill with his feet and in the air and work rate.
Now while the Giroud haters always scoff at all this, do you really think that Wenger and Deschamps would keep selecting him if this did not matter? Get off his back and get ready to cheer him again very soon.