The Frenchman has scored in seven of his last nine
games, but is his fine form sustainable and does it negate the need for
Arsene Wenger to bolster his attack this summer?
Faith is Arsene Wenger’s most divisive quality, able to nurture promising talents into superstars but also encouraging a degree of paralysis at Arsenal as the players he often bewilderingly believes in fail to elevate the club towards a title challenge. Not so long ago, Olivier Giroud
fell into the latter category, seen merely as an inconsistent, preening
frontman being pandered to by a manager not ruthless enough to pursue
an upgrade. But not so anymore.The France international, fresh from winning March's Player of the Month award, may well be remembered as one of Wenger’s ultimate success stories. Less than five years ago he was playing in the second tier of French football, a late bloomer overlooked by countless clubs, and he struggled initially to adapt to the pace and power of the Premier League. Since coming back from a broken foot this season, though, he has exploded.
The chiseled Gallic frontman has scored eight goals in his last nine matches, plus three assists, with Arsenal winning every game in which he has netted in 2015. His outrageous goal-scoring form has seen him average a non-penalty goal every 96 minutes this season, a tally no one else in the Premier League can match – not Diego Costa, not Sergio Aguero and not even Harry Kane.
Maintained over a full season, that strike rate would have Giroud hitting 35 goals and Arsenal would not merely be tussling for the top four, but would be the favorites for the title. “Is he one of the best in the Premier League now? I think so,” said Wenger of his protégé in March. “He is scoring the goals to prove it, he is a fighter as well and I believe he is a team player. His touch, his link play, his finishing, they have all improved.”
His goals have added weight to them now, too. Previously he was something of a flat-track bully, the embodiment of an Arsenal mentality that could sweep aside bottom-half teams (against whom they average 2.62 points per game) but struggled against the elite teams. But as the Gunners have hardened up against top-four rivals, so too has Giroud, netting against Liverpool, Manchester United and City.
Concerns of him wilting in clutch moments have largely dissipated – save for one particularly frustrating display – and, not dissimilarly to the improvements made by Luis Suarez at Liverpool, he now finishes three times more ‘big’ chances than he did in his maiden year, while his goals have directly resulted in nine points, the same number as Eden Hazard despite having played half as many minutes as the Belgian.
His aerial ability, meanwhile – which has yielded at least three more headed goals than any other player since he moved to England in 2012 – has transformed the Gunners from an impotent side on set-plays to one of the most prolific. In fact, only Tottenham (14) has scored more goals from set pieces than its north London rival (13) this term.
Perhaps Giroud’s greatest asset, though, is that he can be both so attuned to Wenger’s slick passing philosophy while also adding the physicality and brutishness often missing in the clutch of diminutive playmakers that make that style possible. He is a counterbalance to the tiki-taka-lite but technical and intelligent enough not to destabilise the attacking rhythm, enhancing it even.
“Olivier has built himself into the No. 1 striker at Arsenal and he’s scoring on a regular basis for his club as well as internationally,” Ian Wright, scorer of 185 goals for the Gunners, exclusively told Goal. “People say he doesn’t score against certain teams but that will happen for him the more he plays.
“I feel he’s someone [Arsenal] should try and tie down and add to. His link-up play is getting even better and though we’ve seen him miss some big chances in games, he’ll learn from that. If he stays long enough he will definitely overhaul my tally at Arsenal, definitely, with his strike rate at the moment.”
At present, with his first-time flicks, imposing stature and rich goal-scoring form, it is hard to envisage a more perfect frontman for Arsenal. Yet, there is a danger that we could get carried away by quite how good Giroud really is. Until the turn of the year, he was a player who provoked the most seesawing of opinions and was deemed ill-equipped to carry a title challenge. Has he improved enough to completely dispel those concerns? Can he maintain this form?
The answer to the latter question is, in all likelihood, no. This streak will inevitably tail off at some point – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the only players capable of maintaining such a high level – and he has been aided by the three months he missed through injury. “He benefits from the fact he has not started a few games,” noted Wenger.
There’s less mileage in his legs, he’s fitter and fresher than the opponents he is facing off against. Weirdly, he is running less (by a massive 2km per game) and sprinting less (down 22 percent) than compared to last season, like an inverse Fernando Torres. While the Spaniard declined he compensated by working harder; as Giroud’s profile grows the need for him to do anything over than score dissipates.
But when his physical advantage fades, Arsenal could be left with the jaw-droppingly bad version of Giroud that flopped so spectacularly against Monaco. Great strikers can have off-days where they are deprived of service or unable to affect matches, but rarely will they pound the turf in frustration after a string of horror misses that effectively ended his side’s European hopes. At White Hart Lane, too, he was utterly abject and lost possession an astonishing 33 times.
Wenger has fallen into the trap of mistaking a run of good form with genuine, long-lasting quality before – take Mathieu Flamini’s brief renaissance which prompted the Arsenal boss to overlook the need for a defensive midfielder, or the occasional flurries of goals from Sylvain Wiltord that kept him in the side – and it would be a mistake to think that the striking department is an area that no longer needs strengthening.
“I think a club like Arsenal always needs to get another player who can come in and add to the strike force,” says Wright. “I hope we can add someone to him and make the team stronger, so it's not just him bearing the brunt.”
Arsenal needs a 30-goal-a-season striker it can depend on, and Giroud has yet to unequivocally establish himself as that man. In waiting to find out if he is truly, consistently world class, the club risks enduring the exact same dilemma and questions next season. Yet, no player has earned the right to prove he can be the main man more than Giroud, even if a striker with just a little more je ne sais quoi and va va voom wouldn’t go amiss in the summer.
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Ian Wright was talking at Ball Street’s media day for #OneMoreGame at Wembley, arranged by Vauxhall England.
Speed and distance data courtesy of the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, Official Player Rating Index of the Premier League.
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