He may have barely kicked a ball in anger for Arsenal so far this season, but fresh from his impressive goal scoring form for his nation at Euro 2016, Olivier Giroud is carrying on where he left off for the France national team. He scored in their friendly against Italy on Thursday and will be hoping to hit the headlines again on Tuesday when they take on Belarus in the first of the games in the World Cup qualifying group.
The extra fitness and confidence that the big striker will hopefully get at international level is good news for the Gunners, of course, but it is also very important for the player himself, as he now finds himself with extra competition at club level after Arsene Wenger completed the transfer of the Spanish forward Lucas Perez from Deportivo La Coruna before the summer window closed on Wednesday.
In an Evening Standard report the Frenchman has suggested that he has no problems with Arsenal adding another forward to the squad and he is not worried that Wenger has only given him 12 minutes of action so far, at the end of our away game against Leicester City, but Giroud must be aware that he is now under more pressure to perform well and hit the back of the net on a regular basis.
He said, “My club situation? I’m not worried, I came back very late from the Euros.
“It was normal to throw me in gradually. There is no problem on that side.”
Giroud is a player who thrives on confidence so if he had not scored that hat-trick at the end of last season to break the long scoring drought and then done himself justice at the Euros I would have been worried about how the Lucas Perez signing would affect him.
As it is, however, do you think that the new signing will actually bring out the best in our other centre forward?
Bob.