Apart from the first Champions League leg at the Emirates stadium, the Arsenal and France international star Olivier Giroud has been in blistering form, with his all round contribution to the cause as well as his finishing power in front of goal.
But the striker still feels that he let the Arsenal fans and his team mates down by missing a handful of great chances against the French Ligue 1 club. But as much as he feels bad when he has a poor game, the Frenchman has an unshakeable belief in his own abilities and knows that one bad game does not make him a bad player.
As the Daily Star have reported, Giroud does still feel that Arsenal have a good chance of overturning the 3-1 scoreline and progressing to the quarter-finals of the elite European competition for the first time in five years. And while our centre forward is determined to make up for his off key performance in the home leg, Giroud is not letting it affect him as he thrives on confidence and has a strong mentality, something he believes is essential to his success on the pitch.
He said, “I take a lot of pressure on the pitch. But when I ‘miss’ a game, if I can say that, you know I try to bounce back as quick as I can.
“If you let the doubts enter your head it’s even more difficult to cope. There are always tough moments like that because we do a hard job.
“You have to question yourself every week and bounce back. I try to show my answer on the pitch with my mentality.
“Football is a sport where you need to have a strong mentality because you have to face some difficulties. It’s like life.
“Even when you play well and score a lot of goals, if you miss one game everything is forgotten. You have to have a conscience about it and be aware.
“Don’t believe the people who talk too much about football. I’m not used to reading the media. I know when I play well or not. I know how to bounce back.
“I used to say that football is an everlasting new beginning. You have to be aware of that and do it.
“We know we have to do a fantastic job to go through in the Champions League. It will be exciting for us. Do I really believe we can do it? Of course.”
If Giroud plays like he did against West Ham, where his brilliant goal took him onto 14 for the season from just 17 starts and seven sub appearances, you would not be surprised to see Arsenal´s name in the draw for the next round. But will he get as many chances in Monaco?
Did anyone else see fatboygooney on the pitch?
Hope he does
He is a good striker and improved a lot this season. He was out for 3 months but still only 6 League goals behind Aguero and Costa
But he still needs to prove that he can score against top teams with top defenses and big match situations. He scored against City in community shield but still needs to show more
This is his big chance tomorrow night
Hopefully, Alexis will find his form and whole team will play well
I don’t understand why people keep saying that. Hes scored against Liverpool, united, city, everton (2x) and against many other good teams. It’s 1 thing to go overboard and say he’s world class now cause of that (and I’m a big olly fan) but it’s another to not acknowledge the improvements he’s made against the “top” sides
Do your talking on the pitch in france, and make it happen giroud! Coyg!
As I have said time and time again. Off you go Giroud talk is cheep it is time you stepped up and win the game. GOYG
Giroud is not good enough….if only we have Cavani, Falcao or Benzema…They guarantee goals
I think Giroud in a 4-4-2 system would be prefect. We need someone else that can be more consistent if we want to win the EPL/UCL.
Sanchez Giroud
Welbeck Cazorla Ozil Theo/Chamberlain
Some of our fans ar amazingly naive…u keep asking for falcow over girouh wtf….let me remind u….compare his wages and girouh and their goals…and pick 1…I know who ill pick….support ur own people plzz support our own..if wenger had buy falcow everybody would praise him in the summer and what if is form was like it is at manu u would u stick by him or slate wenger for buying (sorry loaning) a flop?/
There’s no one who wants falcao, only Hafiz and he’s just trolling.
Giroud need to pull his socks up in the EPL.
11 goals 2012/13
16 goals 2013/14
11 goals so far in this season.
This is not good enough for us to kick on and win the EPL.
You’re not using the stats properly Andrew.
0.36 goals/game 2012/13
0.43 goals/game 2013/14
0.58 goals/game 2014/15
Twig
So you think it’s all right for our main striker to score 38 goals in nearly 3 seasons.
No, it’s not all right. Ideally, he should score 38 goals in a season 🙂 But his improvement this season has been remarkable to say the least.
He has only improved since Welbeck was signed, that shows true class.
ok wow…. do you follow the team at all? you’re aware he was out injured for a long time?
he doesn’t ‘need’ to do anything other than keep playing the way he has been.
Thumbs up if you think Welbeck is a better option on the left wing than Sanchez…
I would play Sanchez just off Giroud and not on the wing 🙂
3 points above Liverpool, plus goal difference. One loss in the league could ruin our whole season at this point. Thankfully Liverpool play United next week, so one of them have to drop points, but we still have to win against Newcastle or that’ll mean nothing.
As much as I love all this fighting talk from our camp I’m not expecting, (but hoping) us to overcome the deficit and progress. I’d rather focus onour pl campaign and the fact that with only 3 clear cl places up for grabs we have mu and pool right with us and even spurs and Southampton are only 7 points behind with 27 to play for. One or two slip ups and it can all go wrong. Let’s hope ramseys upturn in form continues, gabriel comes back and stays healthy and most importantly coquelin doesnt get injured and stays strong. Buckle up we need some slip ups from teams around us to give us a little breathing space! Bet pellgrini is feeling the pressure from below 🙂
Mourinho is feeling the pressure as well, thats why he wants us to win in the UCL. GOYG shut Mourinho up and win the double 🙂
Is Gabriel back??? Because I have seen photos of him training with the team for tomorrow.
With thanks to Arsenal.com
Arsène Wenger reported the following team news ahead of the Champions League game against Monaco:
on the team news…
Gabriel travelled and is available. Chamberlain did not travel, Rosicky did not travel, he comes back from sickness.
Gabriel replaces Apkom in the squad which was involved on Saturday against West Ham.
I would love to start Gabriel tonight to defend against the counter attack Monaco are likely to employ as they sit back to protect their lead but it seems like a major risk. Mertesacker has looked very good since his benching post-Monaco debacle, more aggressive coming for balls and winning more aerial duels and Kos was immense at the weekend.
Either way this game comes down to our ability to pick the lock and score some goals. At least we can go to Monaco without fear and play for a big win because a 1 goal win/draw/loss all result in the same outcome, us sadly exiting the CL after the first knockout round yet again.
We can and will score, and beat them at home. The only question for me is by how many? I am very confident we will get 2 goals and then the 3rd goal will depend on how Monaco see things. Will they go for a goal to secure the tie?
We know we can carve open that defense, we know we will not spurn those simple chances again..we know we won’t be as naive defending against the counter attack (like in the last 2 minutes). We know we won’t be as unlucky with the deflected goal in the 1st game.
My prediction – 4-0 to Arsenal.
Naive post reminiscent of the posts before the first leg against Monaco. I saw so many of the same predictions, that we would absolutely wipe the floor with the principality club and look at how that turned out…
Key for me is how aggressive we are… We need to be winning the 50-50 balls in the midfield and surging up field in packs while leaving key areas covered to protect against the counter attack. Would love to see Sanchez turn this tie on its head and become a Gooner legend in his first season.