I am not sure how happy the Arsenal and France international forward is with his new role, but it certainly seems to be suiting Olivier Giroud to come on as a second half sub. It is not how the big striker started the season, of course, but Arsene Wenger did not have a lot of choice but to give Theo Walcott a chance after Giroud fluffed his lines in those early games.
Maybe it is the fact that the pace and passing game of Arsenal with Alexis Sanchez, Walcott, Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey is taking a lot out of teams and allowing Giroud to come on against tiring players. Maybe his form and confidence have come back and maybe his new status as a sub is making Giroud endeavour to make the most of his limited time on the pitch.
Whatever the reasons, the results are great. Despite having made one more Premier League appearance than Walcott, the Frenchman has only played 359 minutes to the England star´s 500 and that makes his tally of four goals to Theo´s two all the more impressive.
In fact, when you compare the two with the stats on Squawka.com and even factor in our brilliant Chilean forward, when you look at their average over 90 minutes, Giroud´s goal return is exactly one per game, with Alexis on 0.79 and Walcott on 0.36.
Giroud also has the best shooting accuracy of the three and his frequency of getting shots away is just slightly behind that of Alexis. So have Arsenal now got a proper super sub and should Wenger keep things the way they are or start to give Giroud a few more starts in certain matches?
Walcott does ALOT of things that can’t be quantified by stats and he adds a whole other dimension to our attacking game. Having said that giroud has looked very very sharp, he looked strong his movement was good and maybe i was dreaming but he even looked quicker. He looks up for the challenge to win his starting spot back, this duel between him and walcott will only be good for us
both giroud and monreal are faster this yr more so monreal
need to do whats best for AFC as a whole: if giroud can score more when he comes on as a sub, lets keep doing that. we can even sub him on in min60 instead of 75ish like today.
i do wonder if we start bringing on giroud and then sub walcott in min70: would that work? but on the other hand, if you’ve lucked into a working formula, maybe dont change it!
I have been saying before the season started 17,12,14 should be our forwards with Ox coming in as a sub. All 3 forwards are proven 20 goals a season scorers with Ox and his pace able to come in for either of the forwards or LeCoq if necessary for a goal.
The Ox has totally lost it….
And that miss at the end ?
If Ozil’s goal wasn’t given, The Ox would have probably hanged himself.. I think that the 5th official knew that too,
Thats why he gave that goal ??
What a game from hector bellerin! He ran his socks off and kept the bayern munich players in check! Take a bow hector, “awesome” day at the office from you! Coyg!
Goodness. Who thump down this comment? You did not watch the match. Praise Hector. The young boy is fantastic.
Olivier giroud > super sub extraordinaire! Coyg!
Giroud is very effective as a sub. Always has been. Probably more effective as a sub than as a starter. But I think Wenger may reward him with a starting spot because of his goals.
Also, I said straight after the Olympiakos loss that we would beat Bayern. Not too surprised that it’s happened. Why? Arsenal always make the last 16. Arsenal always finish top 4. It’s just a law of how this world works, probably written in the bible somewhere. As soon as that’s under threat of not happening, circumstances change to make sure it does.
what that really means is that we are kind of lazy maybe? versus dinamo and olympiakos we play 50% of our game and get beat. then we show up with 100% . what that means is that at 100% we’re as good as bayern or barcelona. how can we be closer to 100% on more days? maybe this is down to wenger? he’s not able to motivate (either via fear or inspiration) the players on the “smaller” games (smaller games also worth 3 points). prior to the last 2-3 years, we had a habit of beating the top PL teams and losing to mid and lower table ones.
Giroud got the goal and deserves the credit but……..
The difference between Walcott scoring and Giroud scoring was in fact……. Neuer.
Vs. just about any other GK in the world Walcott would have had his goal in the 1st half. And Giroud likely scored because that same GK completely messed up that play.
It could have just as easily been Walcott who got the goal. Neuer just happened to have his hiccup vs. Giroud. Let us not forget that. They BOTH did their job well.
Although OG puts pace on the header that Theo had. Theo just tried to steer it in while Giroud would have put more power on that great cross. He is one of the best options in the air bar none. I don’t see AW making him a 20 minute player, when there are many set pieces in a game never mind crosses.
Sorry, I am not buying that one. Giroud’s headers are often stopped by the GK also. And Walcott’s header had plenty of pace. The header was NOT the problem and you cannot possibly know that Giroud MIGHT have had 4 more inch/pounds of power on the ball. That is just a wild supposition.
NEUER was the difference. Neuer probably made the best Champs League save so far this season. He deserves the FULL credit for that one. Walcott did his job fine.
Just saying OG is a great header of the ball oh and yes Theo does a great job for us. I’m just not not understanding why you drop a 20 goal a season forward like Giroud for a non 20 goal forward like Ramsey.
Give credit mate. Positioning matters. Giroud scored on Saturday. Right? He got our job done. It’s goals that win matches. Giroud has gotten it right now, so credit just as I use to slate him for not getting the job done.
With Ramsey likely out Wenger has several options.
1. Put Ox at RB. This will change the game slightly with Ox playing wide right more often than Ramsey.
2. Shift Bellerin forward to RW and use Debuchy to give him some game time.
3. He could even shift Walcott to RW and start Giroud but I don’t see that one happening.
Wenger will almost certainly go with #1 but he could try #2 one time.
Did you mean put Ox on RW?? Because that makes a lot more sense…
Yes, of course. Autocorrect does some strange things sometimes.
Bellerin although playing at RB is also our best RW. So he should play there with Debuchy at RB. That also gives Arsenal more defensive insurance on the right side.
So proud with the win Well done Arsenal
I disagree with this notion… If Giroud’s performing well it doesn’t vindicate him not being in the starting XI. It’s showing that he’s finding form that he was struggling with start of the season. His confidence was low, and it was showing in front of goal.
Even without his goal today we saw a lot more of what he’s supposed to do when in the team. Holding off defenders with ease, winning headers and bringing others in to play. I was super impressed, and a confident Giroud is a great thing to have whether on the bench or in the starting XI.
He was scoring at a higher frequency than any player in Europe for a portion of last season. Consistency’s a problem, but when he’s on he’s a great striker.
Great overall team performance! We kept it tight when it was needed in this crucial match! Well done gunners! Coyg!
Sometimes the most remote of events can result in a massive impact where you might least expect it.
1. Who would have guessed that Chelsea’s acquisition of Courtois would be such a massive benefit for Arsenal. Finally Arsenal have a top GK who is making a huge difference.
2. Arnautovic was not even called for a foul but his rough play vs. Arsenal has led directly to the introduction of Bellerin who has emerged as an essential player for Arsenal. Without Arnautovic’s little impetuous shove on Debuchy, Bellerin might still be playing in the reserves. Who knows?
i still hope we can rescue debuchy. when he’s good he’s good. bellerin at RW (not RB) i reckon will be better than ramsey or ox at RW.
A few thoughts…
Cech – Monster, the look in his eyes would make we want to go home if I was an opposing striker.
Mertz – United, now Bayern? Huge games in both. His speed being a liability is becoming more and more just a myth. Absolute quality defender.
Monreal – Pin-point cross to Theo and Muller barely influenced the game.
Coquelin – Bayern pressed him like I’ve never seen him pressed before. His ability to weave his way out of trouble was far better than I thought he was capable of. Not only is he amazing when the opponent has the ball, but his responsibility while in possession is far better than he’s given credit for, myself included.
I was gonna comment about coquelin when the player ratings came out because I think people are over looking his performance. Defensively speaking Coquelin was a beast he was all over the pitch making the bayern players go from side to side I’d like to see how much he ran cause he put in a real shift today. Cazorla was our weak spot defensively cause he doesn’t have the legs in games where were defending and Coq had to cover for him he was magnificent.
dude cech is a man freakin mountain he is so intimidating before players even strike the ball they probably know it’s gonna be saved and are hoping for the rebound lol
And I hope monreal let muller out of his back pocket cause he didn’t do a damn thing with nacho hounding him all game. And vidal who? He did jack shiet
Disagree on Santi. Today’s game was about keeping shape and Santi worked as hard as I’ve ever seen him work. Numerous times we were a bit short at the back and noticed Santi sprinting 40 or so yards to plug a hole and keep an opposing player at bay.
He’s never going to be a player to bump a player off the ball, or crunch someone with a tackle. But his agility and small centre of gravity makes him surprisingly good at keeping players in front and not letting them by him. Then, in 2v1 situations he’s great at getting in there an nicking the ball. Plays to his strengths.
I don’t know if the stat is still relevant after the weekend, but he’d won the ball back (44) more times than any player in the league in the defensive third… Under-rated!
I’m not doubting his shift every single player put in a massive amount of work if one player didn’t then I don’t think we would’ve came out victorious cause playing top teams like Bayern require everyone to put in the effort. However putting in effort doesn’t translate to tackles and interceptions, his positioning was good and you could tell he knew he had to defend first but there were a few times I remember he needed to put a tackle in and was just a few steps behind. Either way man what a win today
mertz is good when we’re defending deep: when the game is compressed. but if we’re dominating the other team and playing a high line, and when there’s lots of room between the last line of defence and goalie: then we can get in trouble . in those situations we need to play gabriel who i’m a huge fan of: so no big loss to arsenal on that point.
In general though it has to be said that a high line is risky business. It’s not like Per makes it easy for them, he reads the game so well that Kos mopping up a loose pass was expected. Occasionally he is caught in no mans land, but like I mentioned, a high line in general will do that for every team playing it.
Should have mentioned ..it’s not the high line Per is bad at ..it’s when the offside trap gets broken he is bad at recovering and making up ground. Kos can and has got beaten by an offside trap, but he atleast can recover to let defender know that he has no time then rushing a shot. This is why Kos must be last man, the one in control of the offside trap. If it gets broken then who is to blame.
I was very impressed with Giroud’s performance when he came on,
He has definitely shown his hunger and desire to play lately
And the way he gets back to help out with the defending,
at one point I thought he was Koscielny,
in the way he took the ball off a Munich player,
just as he was going to shoot.
it’s time to put Walcott back on the RW and start with Giroud.
Especially now that Ramsey has damaged his hamstring,
That doesn’t mean that Walcott is not capable of cutting into the box and running into goal scoring opportunitiest from here, if anything, he will end up having more opportunities, what with Giroud’s hold up play from long balls.
re walcott and giroud on at the same time: torn about this one. the current system is working: maybe don’t muck with it. yes, it may not make OG feel good since he’s a super sub, but it may be better overall for arsenal. when TW is at CF, it makes us very fast in the front and tires the defenders. having OG at CF would change our first-half game and we couldnt counterattack as fast as we now do. may be better to leave TW at CF for H1, and bring giroud on in 2nd half when defenders are more tired. it’s been working.
I just hope some fans can stay off Theo’s back with him not scoring in three games, like you say he tires defenders and he creates space for Ozil Alexis. Also he usually pins back defenders which will leave those sneaky gaps between midfield – defence for Alexis Ozil Cazorla Ramsey to work from. As long as we are winning we are scoring ..priority no1.
I would like to see Walcott do one other thing that Henry was best at doing, roaming out to the far wing, defenders did not know how to cope. In Theo’s case he should roam far right, start to move inward as ball gets closer and he has some men to play one touch ball with to stay onside cutting them right open. Basically use what he has learned all those years.
where r all giroud haters gone . lamppost donkey some hahahahaha
I noticed something about Giroud coming into game late, when he came on yesterday I thought to myself is it me or does Oli look slightly quicker than usual. I reckon it’s down to players beginning to feel effects of exhaustion whilst he’s fully charged and ready to go. His strength works better for him too.
Petr Cech ..wow what a keeper. Some pundits are unsure of whether that was an Arsenal game plan or whether it was down to Bayerns ball control skills ..well Cech knows exactly which one because how many times did he kick it long towards Theo of all people. He knew full well it would end up with us keeping shape and trying to pry the ball from a Bayern player to attack with pace. Or attack soon as Bayern head the ball clear. Amazing GK at both ends, what where Chelsea thinking.
Some of you on here were moaning about wenger not buying arturo vidal during the transfer window & some said he was way better than our own, beloved le coq – I must say coquelin played way better in the game last night
COYG…
THE HAND OF GOD…
I would rate Giroud along side with Messi and Maradona with that goal!!!
What pain is that, Everton vs Arsenal: Ramsey and Sanchez ruled out…
Moving on Gunners………………..
once again im going to repeat myself and say that people are being too harsh on giroud!look at rooney.kane,bony….not scoring much lately and they don,t get half the abuse Olie gets.COYG