Speaking after the match against Leicester, Arsene Wenger revealed that he offered Giroud a transfer this summer but the Frenchman refused to take it.
Giroud came off the bench for Arsenal and scored the late winner in a wild 4-3 Premier League opener against Leicester. It was his 9th substitute goal since last season and clearly the big man has a knack for substitute goals.
“I opened the door for him (Giroud)” said Wenger “because I know that it’s important for him to play. But I didn’t want him to go. And in the end he decided to stay and that was one of the great days of recent weeks for me because I know how important he is. Not only as a player, he’s a fantastic player, but also in the group. He has a big weight in the squad and it was a relief for me that he wanted to stay.”
Giroud now has 99 goals for Arsenal in 14,872 minutes. This is the equivalent of a goal every 1.65 matches which is an excellent return from a striker. He will certainly break the mythical 100 goals record for the club this season.
Expect new Arsenal fitness manager to help Giroud with his big weight and get him back to adonis-like fitness as soon as possible.
Evening,
Ahm, I guess that’s goals in competitions? As I thought the goals he scored in preseason would have put him over that difficult 100 barrier.
friendlies don’t count for official goals.
i’m glad he’s still at the club as well. he’s the club’s best center forward. if wenger manages the situation right, i’m sure giroud will get plenty of game time and help arsenal win matches this season.
Hear hear.
Olivier is much loved by us, the fans, because he’s a warrior.
He’s never going to dip below 10 secs in a 100 metres dash, but he’ll grit it out in the tough, physical games, sometimes on D. And he plainly loves the club.
He always fights for his place, making a strong comeback every time. All that said, I can’t see him breaking out of impact sub role as easily this time.
Physicality, yes, but the man can play. He shows great deftness in and around the box, in back-to-goal and hold-up play, and dovetails particularly well with Aaron Ramsey, a runner from deep.
How many times have funs complained that players are mercenaries and don’t love the badge the way we want them to? Giroud isn’t close to the best forward to grace this club but for his combination of indomitable spirit, graft, goals, and love of this club, he deserves a place among Arsenal favorites. He and the BFG both.
There was one shot at the end of the Leicester game after he scored and the camera tracked him running over to the fans – arms out, back of his shirt showing “GIROUD 12”, fans cheering, and all I could think was “Arsenal legend”. He’s going to be a big player for us this year.
That’s right. If he is not considered a legend (likely), it will be due to his constant barren spells in the past. I put that down to him being run into the ground when he was the only decent striker we had. When other players will have ended up injured he kept on grafting but his productivity dipped. This was down to Wenger’s penny pinching. Another striker on his level and we will likely have ended the barren spell earlier. Welbeck’s career will probably have ended under such demands. Ramsey never quite recovered from being played into the ground for less than 2 seasons.