Arsene Wenger has been talking ahead of tomorrow’s game against Crystal Palace, and it looks like he is trying to keep Olivier Giroud concentrated and focused on improving his goalscoring record. The French striker has scored 10 goals in 18 games this season, and has improved his goals-per-game ratio from one goal per 2.75 games in his first season, now down to a goal every 1.8 games this campaign, but Wenger thinks he needs to improve on that before calling himself really top class.
“I want those numbers to go down even more – he can do one in one,” Wenger said on the official Arsenal website. “When you look at the numbers of the top strikers now, they approach 1.1, 1.2 and I think Olivier has the quality to get there.
“The timing of runs in the box is important and he has improved a lot on that. He has improved on the quality of his finishing as well and let’s not forget that he’s surrounded by players who can contribute, who can create crosses, give final balls and then feed your strikers with quality. In our team he gets that.
“What is more important as well, I believe he has improved his team play and his link play. He works hard for the team and not many strikers in Europe work as hard as Olivier does for the team. Even if his numbers are excellent, as long as he continues to contribute to the team I’m very happy.”
Basically what Wenger is telling Giroud is “Don’t get complacent because you are scoring well, always aim for more!” Arsenal really need more goals – as Dave said in a previous post – so come on Olivier, go for it!