Wenger – An Arsenal win was vital today! And Giroud was great!

Arsenal desparately needed to bounce back with a win today after our disappointment in midweek, and they managed to beat a team that has usually managed to contain us in the last couple of seasons. This has consolidated our Third Place and left us just four points behind Man City in second place.

Wenger was pleased after the game and believes that the three points today was “vital” for Arsenal’s season. “What was very important today was that we had a mentally united response and we showed that.” he said on Arsenal.com “We are proud of the response that we showed today. Our defensive concentration was at a much higher level than on Wednesday night. We know that we can do better with the ball but overall what was important for us was to respond with a win. We got it and not everybody can produce that after such a disappointment. It was vital for us, for the rest of the season, to win the game today.

“It was a great goal (by Giroud). He responded very well and I’m not happy only because he scored a goal, but also because of the workrate he put in today from the first to the last minute.”

I knew he wouldn’t drop Giroud, but the Boss was asked if he had considered it. “Not really because he’s an important player in the box with his presence up front, even defensively. The worry for me was him lasting 90 minutes. I took him off after 65 so he only played an hour the other night. All these ingredients were important in my decision. When a guy misses chances in one game, straight away to take him out would be harsh and I thought his presence would be important against Everton.”

“Olivier’s great quality is when his back’s to the wall – he has the personality and the character to respond. Because I know him better now, that’s one of the reasons why I kept him in the team. He acknowledged that he missed his game and he will respond because he has the strength to do it.”

Giroud has definitely kept up his good scoring record, despite his blip against Monaco, and he said himself that he was very glad that Wenger gave him the chance to redeem himself. “We will take it step by step because we have come back from a deep position,” he said.

“The manager gave me a big possibility to bounce back and that’s what we wanted to do together.

“We carry on our good run in the championship even if we’ve been a bit disappointed after the Champions League defeat.

“We have done well this afternoon and we started the game on the front foot. We created chances and we are pleased with this victory.”

We are all pleased Olivier. Now if you can just score a hatrick against United and another one in Monaco we will be even more pleased!

Tags Everton Giroud Wenger

21 Comments

  1. OG scoring most every game is great but I also envisioned Alexis and Theo being a big part of the attack. All 3 are 20 goal forwards.
    Since OG has returned Sanchez has stopped scoring like he did earlier in the season. Welbeck playing in place of Walcott should be scoring as well.

    1. we have qpr on wed and manu 5 days later so lets rest sanchez,ozil,giroud for MU:
      welbeck
      oz, caz, walcott,
      wilshere b2b
      flam cdm [we have no other option for coq]
      gibbs, koz, Per, bellerin
      chesney

      MU:
      giroud,
      sanzhez, ozil, [whoever did better between walcott,ox]
      caz b2b
      chambers at cdm [over flam?]
      monreal, koz, gabriel, bellerin
      ospina

    2. Giroud will lead us to the bpl title next season,he has improved so much this season, I can only see him getting better, go on and thumb me down,I don’t give a rats asss.giroud is a top striker, one of the top four strikers in bpl.come on Olivier

  2. Can’t stand these fickle fans on here. People were constantly b*tching and moaning that there tired of our pretty passing style and dominating the game, but coming away w nothing or 1 point. So when we keep our shape and remained disciplined, and let Everton do nothing besides pass around the halfway line, well what do you know people are complaining that it wasn’t a stylish win!

    For all of evertons passing they created TWO chances! Every time we went forward we look dangerous and the only reason it wasn’t a 3,4-0 score line is cause they had 10 people in there box and giroud didn’t have his finishing boots on (except his goal was superb).

    I honestly can’t stand half the people on this site, they even were saying we need to focus on defending and being pragmatic first and we were, and you lot are now whining and saying we’re not playing beautiful football!

    I honestly don’t understand it

    1. I agree with you that Arsenal must sometimes dig out wins however they can. This has indeed been a complaint from many over the past few years.

      But I don’t think you need to get upset with fans on the site. I think some fans are FEARFUL that the lack of attacking dominance will cost Arsenal in upcoming games and lead the club away from Arsenal type football.

      This is something that gets falsely drilled into people’s heads from sports media and announcers. How many times do you hear that one team “dominated” the game and were “unlucky” not to win simply. This is drummed into fans’ heads. And it is WRONG.

      I keep checking the rules and you still get ZERO points for possession. It is hard for some people to accept that neither possession or any other stat wins games. Scoring more GOALS than your opponent wins games.

      1. But how can I not be upset, these are our “supporters” that berate and belittle our players constantly EVEN when we win. I just don’t understand it.
        But I don’t think well ever stray away from our passing style for good, that is in our DNA and that has become synonymous with our club. The positives I see is that we are now capable of grinding out wins and still have the ability to play mesmerizing football.

        And you are 100% correct to many people look at the stats and that’s what they base there opinions off of when in fact stats sometimes mean essentially nothing. Like today Everton had 70% possession for like the first 25 min but created NOTHING but yet the commentators were on there n*ts.

        1. Everton came to the Emirates last year and had more passing and possession than us then too. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it. Everton are a good team, I don’t mind playing more defensively against them. What frustrates me is when we play defensively against teams like Crystal Palace and Leicester – what’s that about? Yes we won both games, but we were also very lucky not to have dropped points.

          Sometimes we need to grind out results, but against far inferior sides I just can’t see the point. Being consistent and not dropping points to lesser sides has been our biggest strength as a club compared to other top 4 sides, it’s in the big games we struggle, and we seem to have changed our approach now, but why change our approach to playing smaller teams too?

          1. @ mick

            You have a great point and I do not like that we were grinding out games vs the “smaller” teams, to me, I think that is a function of our lack of rotation and our injury problems.

            1. i think we sit back now bc with Per we cannot push up. we cant play a highline with him. and when we all push up, we mentally fall into our old ways and forget to come back. wenger wants players to learn a new way of playing: of being more defensively minded no matter where u are on the field and what is the score. i’m not sure we’ll ever go back to the completely exuberant style we had before because ultimately it was heart destroying when we lost when we played that beautiful style.

    2. First off, Everton are not nearly as good as last year. Talk about losing form. This was never a game we were going to lose. I think we all enjoy the passing control game we are capable of. A big problem is that we start Ozil, Santi, and Alexis at the same time. People enjoy Ozil’s stats, theyre great. He’s great with the ball, passing, and set pieces. To me, he lacks pace, defence, direction at times. He’s no Silva, or Hazard. He can’t penentrate. He’s gifted with the ball and when playing weaker teams, he can pass through defenses easier, but with the big teams we get frustrated at the other end of the pitch and give the ball away for of course a counter attack. I think its highlighted because we are playing three gifted creative players who have limited outlets. Alexis always finds a way, Giroud works hard up top, but our possession can be stifled going forward. Hence frustration, when we move slowly with nice possession up the pitch to be blocked outside the 18 box. I feel that we have the pieces. Giroud or Akpom up top. Wlacott and Alexis on the sides, Santi in the middle, Coq and the missing piece next to him-possibly Rosicky or Ramsey. The back line looked better, but we were playing a weaker team. Gibbs and Bellerin are unbelievably gifted, but lack discipline sometmes. The movement forward is clogged and I think Santi and Ozil need to alternate and not collaborate. This is not hating my team. It’s wanting us to click and beat the big teams we should be beating. Just my opinion

      1. We lack control and are clueless. Last season proved that, every team knows how to play Arsenal, high intensity, press us, close us down, put in a few physical challenges and we start panicking then before we know it we are being embarrassed. 8-2, 6-3, 5-1, 6-0 etc..

        This season Spuds, Liverpool, Chelski, Southampton, Swansea, Dortmund, Anderlecht, Monaco etc have proved that pressing Arsenal gets you points. Even the likes of Leicester and Crystal Palace did the same and we were lucky to get away with wins.

        1. we’ve improved significantly in defence: chesney/per & flam with their stutters and shockers have been replaced with the more staid ospina/gabriel/coq. we’re not having the 8-2, 6-3 and so on. BUT: i do agree that for possessing players with so much passing skills, we do not support each other sufficiently when we are getting pressed. its a bit baffling.

    3. That bull.. No one was tired of pretty possession football.. All we were tired of was the same old weak and poor defensive ability of our team… We have changed our pretty style for a clueless, no structure, no control, slow and rubbish type of football… We have gotten worse.

      If the football was defensive and structured, then we would be happy, but we have completely gone the other way where we are even more clueless than ever before. At least back in the Cesc, Rosicky, Hleb, Nasri era we could win convincingly in certain games, but now days we let any half decent team dominate us, If they have any okay quality up front they beat us.

      This football we are playing will never get us anywhere. Football now is about high intensity and closing down, Barcelona, Bayern, Madrid, Chelski, Liverpool, even Spuds..

  3. 11 games to go. 3 points + goal difference separates us from 5th place. It’s so close…

  4. Yeah its so tight, Southampton lost on Saturday was a great thing to us.They are 5 points behind us now. Everton was a tough team to beat and I am pleased we responded well after the Midweek defeat.
    Out of 11 matches, only 4 looks tougher on paper. Newcalste and Man U away and Chelsea and Pool home, rest 7 looks winnable.
    Worried abouth Le Coq. We need him in all the matches.
    Liverpool’s form is a worry for me. But if we brat them at home then should be fine.

    1. You know what they say. ‘Form is temporary’, Liverpool will run out of steam eventually. We just have to make sure we stay in front.

  5. I actually think Giroud will play well against United. I know Giroud doesn’t do great against top teams or in big matches ie Monaco. United is an exception

    United has a worse defense then ours. Giroud has also scored this season against United. Also, With Falcao improvement, Giroud will have to be on top form.

    So first things first. We need to take care of QPR away. We need to go into FA Cup with a win.

    Hopefully, Giroud will perform well against Qpr.

    Even though, I like Giroud and he is a good striker, I am hoping this will be his last year as our MAIN striker. I’m hoping next season Giroud will be our Supersub To a Top quality striker

  6. i cant see us kicking on to a PL title with giroud, i’m sorry. we need a cavani, suarez, …

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