Arsene Wenger confirmed that Theo Walcott is available to make his return from injury in the FA Cup encounter with Southampton this weekend.
The former Saints youth product has been out since the middle of December, but had been a regular started in the team prior to his absence.
Walcott was a key cog in the system which allowed Alexis Sanchez to thrive in a centre-forward role, and I believe that his injury was key in persuading Arsene Wenger to drop the Chilean back to his wide role, in order to promote Giroud from the bench.
The Frenchman has been in fine form since being reinstated, but you could argue that his inclusion has had a knock-on effect on the rest of our team, and we seem to be scraping by at present.
With a fit Walcott available, Wenger may well be keen to revert back to his previous system as he looks to chase down Premier League leaders Chelsea, who currently hold an eight point gap over us in second.
We don’t appear to have that fear factor playing with our current set-up, but were strongly dominating teams regularly with an in-form fit Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez combining earlier in the season, and Mesut Ozil was even finding the space to get into more regular goalscoring opportunities also.
I know it is hard to consider dropping Giroud when he is constantly scoring, only failing to find the net in one of his six Premier League starts this term, but the team as a whole needs that lift.
For the Chelsea game especially, with us needing a win at Stamford Bridge, I can’t help but believe we will need that something special to come away with the three points, and at present, we don’t have it.
Should Walcott’s return see Alexis returned to a centre-forward? Does Giroud’s form mean Wenger won’t drop him?
Pat J