Ever since he signed for Arsenal back in the summer of 2012, the France international star Olivier Giroud has been under pressure and under fire from the football media as well as some Arsenal fans. And even when his performances and stats had convinced his critics in the media, it seemed like he could not win over a section if his own fans.
It did not help his cause that Arsenal sold Robin van Persie to Man United not long after signing Giroud and he was instantly under pressure to replace the traitorous Dutchman who had just had his best season by a mile and scored 37 goals for the Gunners.
But Giroud just kept going about his business and despite a few barren spells and a few games when he missed a number of good chances, our centre forward has continued to improve. Just as it did at his previous clubs, Giroud´s scoring has got better during his time at Arsenal.
He scored 11 EPL goals and 17 in total the first year and then 16 and 22 the next year. Last season those numbers did drop to 14 and 19 but because of injury he played a lot fewer games and his goals per game ratio actually went up. And it has done the same again this season, with nine from 16 in the Premier League and 14 from 24 in total.
Four of them came in the last week and that has given the Frenchman two very impressive Arsenal records. The goal against Aston Villa was his 50th and a Metro report shows that he reached this milestone one game faster than the great Dennis Bergkamp. In fact only Ian Wright and Thierry Henry did it faster and the man he placed, van Pursestrings, took 29 games more to do it.
His other scoring record reported by Metro is even more impressive Giroud has scored 10 Champions League goals now and has done so in fewer games (21) than any other Gunner, EVER. Henry took 22 games and RVP 29 and everyone else more than 40.
So sing it with me Gooners, na na na na na na naaaaa…..na na na naaaaaaa Giiiiiroooooud!