Chelsea have confirmed the arrival of Olivier Giroud from Arsenal today, with Blues striker Michy Batshuayi completing the three-way merry-go-round of strikers with Borussia Dortmund.
Arsenal agreed a club record £60 Million deal to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang today, and it was firmly expected that the move would open up a three-way moving of strikers between us, Dortmund and Chelsea, and those reports have now all proved to be true.
Michy has left the Blues to join the BVB club on loan, while Giroud has completed a move to Stamford Bridge on a permanent basis, and while we will be the most excited about our capture, I can’t help but think we will have reason to regret allowing our striker to join our rivals.
Chelsea and Arsenal have had a fair working relationship in recent years, despite being strong league rivals, with the likes of Petr Cech and now Giroud moving between our clubs without hostility. They now appear to have worked with us to help us complete our move to sign Aubameyang strangely enough.
Giroud has notched up four Premier League goals so far this season, despite being limited to less than 400 match minutes, and now leaves us having scored 73 league goals in his five and a half year spell in North London.
We will now have to figure out how to accommodate quartet Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette, PEA and Henrikh Mkhitaryan into our first-team, and there is weary thoughts about a prospective partnership between the two strikers.
I’m of the opinion that Giroud would have posed as the better option to play in a front two with either of our current strikers, but that will no longer be an option going forward.
Olivier is now expected to form a partnership with Alvaro Morata in West London, although it remains to be seen whether the Premier League champions will opt to start matches with both up top.
The Frenchman retains a lot of quality, and will no doubt score key goals for his new side, just as he did for us when earning the title of super-sub over the past 18 months, and I can’t help but think we should have kept him as another option, and we will regret allowing his exit.
Will Giroud play regularly at Chelsea? Would he have been a better option to form a partnership in attack than our current options? Will we ultimately regret allowing him to join our rivals?
Pat J