As France slumped to a defeat against Sweden following a horrendous error by Spurs captain Hugo Lloris, the undoubted highlight of the match was Olivier Giroud’s sumptuous strike into the top corner to give France the lead. The Arsenal striker now has 17 goals in 17 starts for France, a statistic which begs the question as to whether Arsenal make the best use of the Frenchman.
Another baffling aspect is the fact that Giroud is Didier Deschamps’ undisputed Number 9 for France, keeping out the likes of Lacazette, Mbappe and Benzema, all players that Arsenal fans are urging Wenger to sign, although the latter’s name is not really heard anymore. In addition, Giroud has a better goal-scoring record for his country than all of those players, although Mbappe just recently made his debut. So taking all this into consideration, are Arsenal actually holding the striker back?
In my opinion, I would agree, but only to a certain degree. While France play in a style that is very similar to Arsenal, Deschamps places a higher emphasis on crosses into the box, especially when his favorite hitman is on the pitch. Djibril Sidibe and Benjamin Mendy are both full-backs who are renowned for their crossing ability, whilst the likes of Cabaye, Pogba and Matuidi who play in the middle feed him with regular diagonals to help him bring others into play.
While Arsenal do this as well, the frequency and the quality of crosses are comparatively much lesser. But then again, it is perhaps more difficult for a targetman like Giroud to assert his dominance in a league as physical as the Premier League, with defenders in England’s top flight not as easy to out-muscle compared to the rest of Europe. So with that being said, it comes down to the Premier League being tough as well.
But when you look at his incredible statistics for France, one cannot help but wonder whether Arsenal can modify their style of play when the handsome Frenchman is on the pitch. While I certainly do not believe that he is a striker who can lead a team to the title, I really think that Wenger can alter his tactics a bit to compliment the style of a targetman when he is on the pitch.
Yes sometimes back Wenger was that kind of a Manager that can transform players from a mediocre to a superstar but nowadays the reverse is the case e.g. Arshavin, Perez, Campbell etc.
In order to favour his cronies.
Wenger can’t Even motivate Arsenal Ladies’ team to Win their League talk less of Motivating the Male team.
Swap Deschamps for Wenger.
Bellerin just can not cross. Monreal also is not even close to being even a good crosser. It’s funny that Olivier would provide the cross right on a plate for Ramsey to give us a trophy on the last day.
Part of the reason Ox was so brilliant at wing back was because his crosses were really good most of the time. I have never understood why so many of our fullbacks have poor crossing. Sagna, Bellerin, Gibbs, Monreal — none of them can cross well.
Nice call Tidan2. Ox is a great wing back and with our new system it should help him become the player we always thought he would become. I still remember the cross to Olivier for the level against MU.
?? And I still remember The Ox giving the ball away that lead to us conceding many goals and the fans screaming not to let him anywhere near our defence. Yeah it’s amazing how a player improves when he’s contract is running low. Maybe it has something to do with putting himself in the shopfront window?
In fairness, out wide Ox was always more defensively sound than Walcott, not difficult, but it was the only real choice we had.
Jim we have only one tall player in giroud alone and most of the time he is against some strong defenders in the leauge
Giroud always performs better when Arsenal are looking for a new striker, and In-between those times, we get a load of tongue poking and gazing at the sky’s.
We’re about to lose Sanchez to one of our PL rivals (City) while Wenger is window shopping at marquee stores yet looking spend his money at PoundLand/ Pound-stretchers and the homeless charity stores.
Oh & here’s one he prepared early:
Arsenal are set to seal the signing of CSKA Moscow midfielder Aleksandr Golovin.
According to reports in Russia, the Gunners are ‘close to completing negotiations’ with CSKA for the 21-year-old star.
Chelsea had been linked for the Russian international, but Sports.ru claim that Golovin is now on the verge of sealing a move to the Emirates.
It’s also been suggested that If the £10 million deal is completed, the player will be loaned back to the club for next season.
Hahaha I read golovkin
Wengers buying boxers these days
U know it irritates me that ppl won’t admit wenger is the best manager ever.
Like.tha fa cup isn’t better than the champs league.
I know wenger intimately… he planned losing to bayern so he could win fa cup
I see the Arsenal fc begging Sanchez to stay as a pathetic scenario. Is Sanchez that good, yes he is good but we have players that can stand up and fight if given the right motivation e.g. Lucas Perez but Wenger would not and some say we should not call him a “Specialist in Failure”.
Wenger is not a failure because he’s not winning trophies, no! He is a failure because he always ignores the REALITY and keeps on embracing the FANTASY that he is always right Even when every man and his dog knows that he’s wrong.
Giroud scored 20 goals for Montpellier before joining Arsenal but Wenger can’t motivate the guy enough to maximise his potentials.
Now we call him Lamppost!
How pathetic!
Lol if it wasn’t for Sanchez this season gone Arsenal would have finished below stoke,the guy carried the team on his back all season.Giroud didn’t score for 16 games.Also if it wasn’t for Sanchez Arsenal no way would have won the FA Cup.Just watch him fire City to the title season while Giroud misses sitters and sticks his tongue out.
Sanchez scored 2 in that stretch you are talking about and started every game.
exactly !
sell him and bring in peter crouch as a replacement
hahah boy you said Lucas perez if well motivated can fill Sanchez place…are you high?!
Mendy for 50m is worth the investment
monaco are overated
we are way better
no one in there team would improve us
u want improvements?
raid b & q…2 for 1 on all dulux emulsions
Giroud is mediocre. He literally went half a season without scoring once.
That must have been the season when Wenger wasn’t interested in buying a striker? ?
Oh and then there’s Walcott ?? who only has a good season when his contract needs renewing… They should have given him a yearly contract instead ?.
Let’s not kid ourselves here, when the majority of our squad is mediocre, they only bust a gut when the Wenger trophy is in danger.
Wenger needs to pull his finger out and sign a huge player and I’m not talking about Peter Crouch,either.
He still thinks he can develop Giroud. At 30 and so slow his legs aren’t going to give out for another decade
what a goal
Chambo was asked who scored the craziest goal in training, guess who he answeres? Giroud and Walcott, nt even ozil or sanchez
So how comes Arsenal are not reporting Man City for tapping up Sanchez then?… ?… ?… ?? Oh, maybe it has something to do with money, which is far more important than winning trophies ?? Yup, now that would explain why.
Some arsenal fans are pathetic. They are the reason the club is in this mess and they will be the first to come here and complain. Now they are worshiping Sanchez as if he is a god. someone even said he won the fa cup for the club. was he the one that scored the winning goal. oh i see he is Ospina, Holding, TBFG, etc. How many fa cup matches did he play. it is so stupid to give the whole team efforts to one man because he had an outstanding season. where was he last season or season before. what was his contributions in his first season. I’m not saying he is not a good because he his but we are making it sounds like others are useless. I can count many of his mistake that lead to goal against us this season. one of them is a goal against Bayan Munich. my point is he is as culpable as any one in that team tbh. if he doesn’t want to stay ,the door is wide open and if manc is his prefer choice no problem as long as they pay 70M. if all the clubs in EPL spend 300m each, only one club will win EPL.
Giroud has never been good. A lamp post that cannot dribble past one defender since coming to Arsenal. I would have kept Gervhino instead of Giroud. Plz sell the lamp post, plus Ozil, Debuchy, and Ramsey. These players, slows the game.
He dribbled Kolo Toure twice and scored
4 – 1 and 3 – 3