Poor old Olivier Giroud, he has been Arsenal’s top scorer for three years in a row, but he has never been truly admired by many of the home crowd, in fact he has been vilified as the reason for us not winning the title last season after failing to score for 15 games in a row.
But this season, Wenger has changed everything. Other than buying Lucas Perez, Le Prof has also moved Alexis Sanchez into the middle where he has excelled, and obviously his mythical “toe injury” has meant that Olivier has not featured hardly at all!
But last week, with Arsenal failing to break down a packed Sunderland defence, Giroud was brought on and miraculously scored with both of his first touches. The French striker thought that would be enough for him to earn a starting spot against Tottenham but he was consigned to the bench again.
Giroud hinted that he is not going to be happy if this continues to be a regular occurrence. “The coach told me that he admires me for my strength of character.” Oli said. “I know that he supports me. But still…it mustn’t last too long or happen too often. Over time, it wears you down,”
“Against Sunderland, I scored with my first two touches. That’s not going to happen every day. I had hoped to play against Spurs because I’d had two good games. I was a little bit disappointed, but I’m not the sort of person to just give up.
“……”When I watched Arsenal from the stands, I saw a team that was playing well and that was having a very good start to the season, and I said to myself that the train was leaving without me and that I mustn’t get too far behind.”
It may be a bit too late for him to suddenly be first choice again, but as Wenger keeps saying there are 25 players in the squad and every single one will have a say in how our season goes (except maybe Sanogo and Debuchy!). All it will take is a injury to Alexis and, with Lucas sidelined until Christmas, then Giroud will be thrust back into the limelight.
He needs to stop demonstrating his frustration and just keep fit so he will be available when called upon. Maybe he should have a chat with some other loyal Arsenal players, like Kieran Gibbs, Mohamed Elneny and Gabriel, who have played even less than Giroud. But you don’t hear them moaning…..
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