The French international centre forward should certainly be in the good books of Arsene Wenger at the moment, after Olivier Giroud came to the rescue off the bench once again at the weekend with a brilliant late header to earn a point at Manchester United that did not look likely as the end of the match approached.
That would not necessarily earn the big striker a place back in the starting line-up though, as he was back on the bench for the game after his previous super sub showing away to Sunderland. This time I think that Giroud will be in the team to face PSG for a number of reasons.
The main one is that as well as being in good form with four goals in his last four games, the striker is absolutely champing at the bit for more game time. Wenger described it last week as a positive anger and with the French champions coming to London I reckon that righteous fury will be even stronger, as he has been harshly treated by French fans for some time and so will be desperate to show them how wrong their criticism is.
I do not think we should underestimate this extra sort of motivating factor as it has been seen time and time again that a player with a point to prove often does so. Other reasons for the boss to go with Giroud is to possibly surprise PSG and to have as much goal threat as possible on the pitch and he did speak about both strikers in his pre match comments reported by The Mirror.
He said, “They are different styles of players and that dictates a different style to us and shape, as well as the form of players at the moment.
“It’s a mixture of many ingredients.
“My job is to select and decide and that is the same every week.”
If the Frenchman does start we will still have Alexis Sanchez to do his thing but from the left instead of the middle, especially with the news reported by Just Arsenal yesterday that their right back Serge Aurier is not allowed into the UK. Plus our chances of scoring from set pieces will be much greater.
Giroud might be back on the bench for the Premier League game against Bournemouth but do you agree that he needs to start against PSG?
Bob.
BoB are you a brother to admin. Anyways, if he starts and Alexis moves to the left then it is the same old arsenal that we dismissed afew months ago. OG has earned his place as a supersub. Let Iwobi ir ox start on that flankcand we tire them then Oli can come in and add a goal. Why invent average whem we can copy excellent
In an ideal world, Perez would start against PSG but in his absence, perhaps Giroud should start. Not because he might be motivated to play a French team. his inclusion in the team last time we played PSG in Paris was rather disastrous if I recall correctly, but because I think Sanchez should be rested for the PL.
Let’s face it Arsenal are unlikely to win the CL and with the likes of Real Madrid possibly finishing 2nd in their group, the difference for us between finishing 1 or 2 in our group might not turn out to be massive. But Sanchez picking up an injury whilst we have already qualified for the knock-out stages would be a big setback. That is the reason I could live with starting Giroud.
Starting Giroud and Sanchez would be going back to a past that didn’t work. Besides isn’t it time we put Iwobi back in on the left? He showed a lot of promise and should get the chance to continue his development, even if that is going to come with ups and downs. To me, Sanchez is much better on the right than on the left.
Giroud should only start when we need to rest Sanchez who is our most talented central strike by a mile IMO.