Olivier Giroud Is No Longer 1st Choice, but He Is a Great Plan B for Arsenal

In the week leading up to Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Chelsea, Olivier Giroud was absent with a reported toe injury. That meant he was never likely to start the London derby. However, even if he had been fully fit, it’s improbable that he would have been picked. After years of being the undisputed first-choice striker at the Emirates Stadium, the indications are that he has finally fallen from grace. 

It’s a considerable about-turn from manager Arsene Wenger, who has retained faith in Giroud pretty consistently since his arrival from Montpellier. Asked by the BBC (h/t Sam Long of the Evening Standard) at the end of last season whether the Frenchman would remain the spearhead of the Arsenal attack, Wenger spoke with a degree of certainty: 

Yes. I believe that Danny Welbeck being out now for a long, long time we will be on the road to look for one more striker.

After that it’s down to compete. Olivier has strong and weak moments so we have to deal with that.

He is a bit unbelievable—he is in cycles. He scores in spells and then sometimes he scores less.

That’s an accurate assessment of Giroud’s performances last season. After a strong first half of the campaign, he endured a nightmarish run-in in which he could not buy a goal. Nevertheless, he was the only player to figure in every one of Arsenal’s Premier League games in 2015/16, and he finished the season with an impressive tally of 16 league goals, making him the club’s top scorer. 

However, since the start of this season, there has been a change. When Giroud was left out of the first few games, the decision was justified by the fact that the forward had reached the final of Euro 2016. The player himself told James Benge of the Evening Standard:  

My club situation? I’m not worried, I came back very late from the Euros. It was normal to throw me in gradually. There is no problem on that side.

Publicly, at least, Wenger has concurred. As recently as mid-September, he told John Cross of the Mirror: 

He (Giroud) was a bit behind at the start. Fitness-wise he has been behind Koscielny and Ozil. At the start it took him some time to get back. Since the last …

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