For Arsenal to win the Premier League title we need quite a few things to happen. Starting from the away game against Bournemouth on Sunday the Gunners need to get back to winning ways. We really need to hold our nerve and deal with the expectation of winning games against so-called lesser teams and then we need to step up and cope with the pressure or the games against the big boys.
Keeping it tight at the back is essential, of course, as it gives the team a platform to work from and means that there is less pressure on the creative and attacking players at the other end to produce their very best form on a week to week basis.
But even with a solid back four and an in form Petr Cech, Arsenal will need to score goals and that is the hot topic around the club this week after drawing a blanks for the three games in a row for the first time since 2009. Normally this would be a cue for Arsenal fans to start getting on the back of our French striker and bemoaning the fact that Giroud squanders too many chances.
Not this time, though, as a stats report in Metro shows that the big man is in fact the only one of the Arsenal strike force that is anywhere near clinical in front of goal. The report shows on a graph the difference between the conversion rates of our five main goal threats Giroid, Alexis, Ramsey, Ozil and Walcott compared to their expected goal rate, worked out by the likelihood of all of their chances resulting in a goal.
The Frenchman’s conversion rate is higher than expected and that is very good news for Arsenal fans. The big worry is that the other five Gunners are all converting some way below their expected rate. So does this mean that we are pinning any hopes of the EPL title on Giroud?