Arsene Wenger has not already revealed which 11 Arsenal players will be in the starting line-up for the Premier League home game against Burnley on Sunday afternoon, of course he hasn’t, but it does not take a football genius to guess that Olivier Giroud was always going to be one of them as long as the France international star was fit enough.
There was a real concern that the in form forward might not be though, after he appeared to damage his left ankle while scoring the opening goal for the Gunners to set us on the road to a four goal win away to Swansea City last weekend, but Metro have reported that the big man is back in training so we can assume that he is perfectly okay to play again.
The manager and his medical team at Arsenal must be relieved as well, because instead of replacing the big striker when he first complained of the problem they kept him on until the break and then for another 15 minutes after the restart.
I guess this shows just how important the boss sees Giroud’s presence on the pitch at the moment and that is hardly surprising when you look at the red hot form he has been showing as he tries to prove to his manager that his place should be in the first team and not on the bench as it was for most of the first half of the season. That goal at the Liberty Stadium made him the first Arsenal player in nine years to score in five successive matches.
In a home game against Burnley, Arsenal are likely to need Giroud’s presence as a target man to link up the play and give us the extra danger of using the flanks and putting balls into the box if the central area is congested, so can Giroud make it six in a row against the Clarets and keep Arsenal’s title challenge alive?
Bob.