I am not sure how happy the Arsenal and France international forward is with his new role, but it certainly seems to be suiting Olivier Giroud to come on as a second half sub. It is not how the big striker started the season, of course, but Arsene Wenger did not have a lot of choice but to give Theo Walcott a chance after Giroud fluffed his lines in those early games.
Maybe it is the fact that the pace and passing game of Arsenal with Alexis Sanchez, Walcott, Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey is taking a lot out of teams and allowing Giroud to come on against tiring players. Maybe his form and confidence have come back and maybe his new status as a sub is making Giroud endeavour to make the most of his limited time on the pitch.
Whatever the reasons, the results are great. Despite having made one more Premier League appearance than Walcott, the Frenchman has only played 359 minutes to the England star´s 500 and that makes his tally of four goals to Theo´s two all the more impressive.
In fact, when you compare the two with the stats on Squawka.com and even factor in our brilliant Chilean forward, when you look at their average over 90 minutes, Giroud´s goal return is exactly one per game, with Alexis on 0.79 and Walcott on 0.36.
Giroud also has the best shooting accuracy of the three and his frequency of getting shots away is just slightly behind that of Alexis. So have Arsenal now got a proper super sub and should Wenger keep things the way they are or start to give Giroud a few more starts in certain matches?