First of all I just want to remind the Arsenal fans that our centre forward Olivier Giroud has not suddenly found out how to score a goal. He may have been a bit off colour at the start of the current season, but the stats show that no player bar Sergio Aguero has scored more Premier League goals than the Frenchman since he signed for Arsenal three years ago. Surprised? So was I.
Giroud has had his doubters, both in and out of the Arsenal fraternity, and some of it has been his fault and some has been our lack of options. One of the major questions the Arsenal fans have had with him in the last two seasons has been whether his lack of pace and movement has been blunting the attacking potential of our play maker Mesut Ozil.
So when Theo Walcott started the season well and took Giroud´s place many of us thought that Wenger had solved the problem. However, Giroud also linked up with the German to great effect this weekend and he spoke about how well their understanding has grown, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Giroud said, “It’s a few weeks since I’ve started a game, with the national team.
“We have a different profile with Theo, and he was doing well at the beginning of the season. I try to bring what I know I can do well for the team so I’m pleased with the header.
“It was a fantastic ball from Mesut. We have a good understanding on the pitch and I’m pleased for the team because we have given a really great performance with [plenty of] dedication and commitment.”
So as well as having two very good and very different options at centre forward, have Arsenal also got the player to work perfectly with either one?
Both of them now posses more hunger.. Probably bcz of competition for places.. Giroud had effectively zero competition b4 walcott started playing striker… And walcott owned right wing, apart from his injury.. This tells us how important competition is .. But why isnt campbell competiting with the ox ?? Campbell should start atleast 1 or 2 matches if ox’s form continues..
Perfect? NO, of course not.
A WC striker would be perfect. However, we don’t have one.
Walcott and Giroud have both improved and competing against each other is making both better.
I’m hoping Walcott and Giroud will score more often and help us win the PL.
However, I think Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling is better than Giroud/Walcott, Ozil, Alexis and OX/Ramsey. So Man City will win the PL because they will be too much quality for us.
I’d take ozil over silva, cazorla over de bruyne, walcott over sterling, and alexis is showing he’s in the same class as Aguero. Quit minimizing our team we are full of quality and we have better depth than they do. Giroud > bony. Ramsey > Nasri. The Ox > navas.
And there defense is shaky Otamendi is trash just watch him and you’ll see.
Sterling is so overrated and de bruyne is good but just wait for a few months when PL teams understand/know his game and they’ll see his limitations on the RW
@Goonsquad8
Most of what you said is spot on, with the exception of Ox>Navas. Both have blistering pace down the wing and very little end product. But Ox is known to bag a goal or 3 and Navas lays some sweet crosses in the box. And they both fall short on their defensive duties. So, I’ll say they’re about even…
Not suggesting for one minute we’ve been perfect. But IMO, KDB and Sterling have been flat-track bullies. Disappeared in the big games. Toure just doesn’t seem hungry at all and Aguero’s injury problems are still evident.
With the big-time performances and current form, I’d take Cazorla, Ozil and Sanchez over any of their players at the moment. We backed up a massive mid-week game with a win. They looked pretty tame against United.
Walcott has done absoultely jack sheet this season to be considered a centre-forward. At most he has been a stand in like Welbeck was last season (though Giroud this time is not injured, just off form) – and with a worse scoring record than Welbeck.
With Walcott it is very important to dwell on the number of chances he misses per game because of mistimed runs, and when he times it right, he aims the ball at the keeper or into the stands. The only blog in the blog-universe with Walcott LOVE is this one – it screams love for Walcott and always in conjunction with Walcott being a centre-forward, needs to be a centre-forward, should be a centre-forward, Walcott, Walcott, Centre-forward, Walcott is right to hold the club to ransom so he can be a striker, Walcott started as a striker and is the answer to our prayers, Oh Walcott, at last he’s playing as a stiker, now you’ll see all this Walcott LOVE pay off …. er ….um …. well?
EVERY striker opportunity Walcott has had he ends back on the wing where he belongs. He was a striker for the first 2 seasons at Arsenal, sorry to break it to you and he was a fail, he failed again after all his whining and the “Sign Da Ting” mercenary antics, and this season he has again proven he is not a centre-forward, doesn’t look like he will ever be one. He has convinced nobody, hence Giroud being picked again like he should be and actually scoring because he IS a striker.
I pray we buy a striker so the writer smitten with “Theo” can see the difference. I hope this new striker makes Walcott want to sulk and leave Arsenal and go to QPR who is the only team that can afford to pay his wage for such an average player. No other team will want him because he is average and disguises this by being injured for two thirds of every season so the stats don’t expose him over a whole campaign. Funny how he is never injured while given a run as a striker (coincidence or deliberately being injured as a winger because he wants to be a striker).
The only effective place Walcott can play is on the wing where he contributes with more goals, many more goals than he does as a striker – despite his refusal to track back and defend like Sanchez does. Walcott is not in the top 15 of the EPL strikers and Arsenal is supposed to be a top club in Europe, and they have Walcott as a striker? We might be at the top of the table but Walcott has not put us there and he will not keep us there if Giroud is benched to give Walcott more chances to FAIL as a centre-forward.
“I’m going to be awesome now because Thierry spoke to me.” – you sound like Bendtner, except Bendtner IS a striker.
Note the doing well at the beginning of the season was August and we are 5 days away from November. 3 months!!!! Compare Walcott’s scoring with Welbecks last season when this winger who thinks he is a striker too stood in for Giroud, lololololololololololol.
I stopped reading very early cause your lack of knowledge is appalling. You probably shouldn’t comment about walcott or football for that matter your embarrassing yourself
Haha so you didn’t get to the point about his first few seasons being used as a striker and supposedly failing as his case in point? Shame.. It was a compelling argument!
14 thumbs down by NEW fans who have jumped from Man Utd since Fergie left and haven’t a clue how Walcott played from the age of 17-24.
They would do if they read the post and learnt from a supporter going back to when Terry Neill was the manager. 😉
You lot stand out to us like George Michael does in a publc bog.
…. and cheers Josh, but you’re wasting your time with these overseas armchair lot.
So let me get this straight, Walcott is bad because in his early 20s he didn’t play like Henry and Aguero at their peak ? Wenger put him on the right for him to develop the qualities of an ALL-ROUND forward no different to what he did with Cazorla, Ozil and Ramsey for midfield. Here’s a fun fact, in 2012 Walcott had the same number of assists and and goals as Ribery, yes the Bayern legend. Goonsquad is right, you shouldn’t be commenting on football let alone a football player.
And btw, EVERY STRIKER MISSES CHANCES BEFORE SCORING. HAVE YOU EVER WATCHED SUAREZ, HENRY OR RVP PLAY AT ALL ??! They needed 3-4 chances before putting the ball in the back of the net, the difference between them and average strikers is that they ALWAYS get chances. Walcott is currently proving to be the same, you CAN’T stop him from getting chances, he proved it against GUARDIOLA’S BAYERN aka BEST TEAM IN EUROPE.
I’m genuinely questioning whether or not you’ve actually watched him play this season. Or even seen any ball, kicked anywhere at all, round, oval, heck, even a misshapen hacky sack!!
Spot on … But all you will get from this site is you aren’t watching the game coz if u were you would see he is imperious and gifted beyond the 140 grand a week we pay him despite not being in the top 20 EPL strikers and with the best goal creating machine behind him … Walcott is a whippet ..he can tun fast in a straight line … does not have clinical finishing or a strikers instinct … Constantly offside even against slow defences … With everyone around us underperforming if we had bought the striking options we needed in summer we would be comfortably ahead of pack by now as it is we are 5 ahead of a very average spurs team
Offside… 1pg League and 1.3pg in the CL
But don’t let little things like stats get in the way of wild assumptions based on nothing…
5 ahead of a very average Spurs team!!!!!!! Wow.. Some people! Equal at the top on points and still finding some obscure way to whinge. I’m actually laughing
youve been laiughing for the last 5 years mate…anyway i thought you only went for statistics per minute…. check his place in the list of epl goal scorers and get back…cant make this celebration of utter mediocrity up if u stumped up 140 grand a week…oh just a second…
For me, Giroud is a valuable asset to have as he provides a different type of option up front. What I cannot keep wondering though is about the ‘type’ of goals he scores. Yes a goal is a goal, but if a striker is limited in the type of goals he can score, then he is limited in general. Giroud is the type of CF who will get those tap ins, headers and generally goals that require little movement. Every team needs this type of player. But every top team also needs the type of CF who can run with the ball and make something of nothing. This is what sets Giroud apart from other world class strikers – Aguero, Suarez, Ronaldo, Bale, Messi, Neymar, Lewandowski etc etc. All those other players can do what Giroud does plus more. How often have we seen Giroud run with ball, dribble players and score goals? Hardly ever. I am not bringing him down but I think when we require a player to score goals like these in certain games, Giroud will fall short. Giroud and Walcott are good strikers in their own right, they provide a completely different set of skills which can be used strategically against certain teams, but I think Arsenal still lack that one ALL ROUND world class striker. Giroud and Walcott might be able to cut it in the BPL and clench us the title, but when it comes to dominating Europe, we need something more.
i have got the answer cut off walcots legs and give them to giroud .
Campbell has to be given a chance. I doubt if he wud b treated like this if he were English
@Tekena
RealTalk…
walcott should just go back to the wing and play where the team needs him most..chamberlain is pretty much costing us a goal a game and no one else is quality enough to play the right flank. Theo as a central striker just isnt producing goals..
you probably missed Arsenal’s 4th goal against liverpool last season…..
People just don’t like giroud.
Even before Walcott as cf hs stars were very decent but no people always said stats didn’t tell the story.
He has proven many time he is a very good player and only some superbe players are above him like Kun .
He had alreadynscored v big teams now he has scored v very big teams in a row.
Yeah. Hell yeah we Ve got em two good strikers