2012 Summer Signings – Olivier Giroud (Montpellier reported fee. £10m- £12m)

Following on from yesterday’s review of Lukas Podolski’s first year in England, today it’s the turn of Olivier Giroud, a summer signing from French club Montpellier in 2012.

Like Podolski, Giroud was signed before the departure of Robin Van Persie. It was also made before Van Persie released the statement that said he wanted to leave the club. So when Giroud was signed, a lot of fans saw what was coming in the near future – the departure of Arsenal’s captain and top scorer from 2011/12. Others thought there was a possibility of playing a front three of Podolski, Giroud and Van Persie.

Once the Dutchman left Arsenal, Arsene Wenger was questioned by the media about replacing him. He stated that he had already replaced Van Persie with the signings of Podolski and Giroud.

Giroud came into the club with a lot of pressure to succeed. He had scored 25 goals in all competitions for Montpellier as they won the French title in 2011/12 and had played for the French national team at that summer’s European Championships.

He was a bit of an unknown in England though, having spent the majority of his career in the lower divisions of the French league, before moving to Montpellier in the summer of 2010. One thing that fans knew was that he was familiar with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny, having played together for Tours earlier in their careers.

Giroud was unfairly criticised early on in his Arsenal career. He came off the bench to make his Arsenal debut against Sunderland in the opening game of the season. The Frenchman missed a great chance with the goal seemingly at his mercy, much to the crowd’s frustration. A lot of fans on Twitter started saying that he already wasn’t good enough and that we weren’t going to be any good without Van Persie. He hadn’t even played a full game yet and people were slaughtering him.

As Arsenal drew 0-0 for the second game running in a physical game at Stoke, a lot of questions were asked of the two new strikers brought in to replace Van Persie.

What people forget is that the French league is very different to England. You need time to settle in. It wasn’t Giroud’s fault that Van Persie was sold that summer. Yet people expected goals out of him instantly. Did Thierry Henry score goals straight away?. No. It took a while for him to become a regular on the scoresheet in his first year.

Giroud’s first goal for the club came in a 6-1 win over League One club Coventry City in the League Cup. The Frenchman opened the scoring that night but was also denied from the penalty spot that night. I think Wenger played Giroud that night to give him a bit of confidence. Scoring his first goal certainly helped him, but missing a penalty put a bit of a dampener on the night.

Still, Giroud would have to wait a little longer before he had success in front of goal in the Premier League. On October 6th, Giroud scored the opening goal of the game away to West Ham and provided an assist for Theo Walcott as Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners. It took Giroud 303 minutes of Premier League football before he finally scored. All that pressure that had been put on him was off his shoulders. He couldn’t hide his delight in his celebration.

At the end of October, Arsenal travelled to Reading for a memorable League Cup tie. With Arsenal 4-1 down with over an hour played, Giroud was brought on from the bench. Within two minutes, he headed past Adam Federici to make it 4-2. Arsenal would go on to level the scores at 4-4 and force extra-time, before eventually going on to win 7-5.

Giroud improved further in November, with man of the match displays against Fulham and former club Montpellier. He scored in a 2-2 draw away to Schalke in the Champions League group stages, as well as hitting a brace in the 3-3 draw with Fulham. He followed up this fine form by scoring in the North London Derby against Tottenham a week later, helping the Gunners to a 5-2 win.

December was a month that gradually got better for him as illness and injuries ruled him out of the games against Bradford and Wigan. He ended the month well with a brace against Newcastle as Arsenal ended 2012 with a thrilling 7-3 win.

He found form in the new year, as he hit braces against both West Ham and Brighton, before scoring an important goal in a 2-2 draw with Liverpool at the end of January. You could see his confidence beginning to grow, the display against Brighton in the FA Cup was top notch and the goals he scored there were superb. His fine form in January won him the Player of the Month award as voted for by the fans.

Giroud’s performance at Brighton in the FA Cup sticks out as one of my fonder memories of his debut season in England. Picture: The Telegraph.

The Frenchman failed to find the net in February as the Gunners were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Blackburn and lost the first leg of their Champions League clash with Bayern Munich 3-1.

Arsenal had a near impossible task in the return leg in Munich, but got off to the perfect start when Giroud scored in the third minute of the game. Laurent Koscielny scored a second goal late on, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Bayern from progressing. They went out in style and there’s no shame in the way they went out at all. Bayern very rarely lose at home and Arsenal were knocked out by the eventual champions in the end.

Giroud scored one more goal in March, it came at home to Reading in a comfortable 4-1 win at the Emirates.

In mid-April, Giroud played a big part in an important win at home to Norwich. Arsenal trailed Norwich 1-0 late on in a must win game if they were to keep up their hopes of Champions League qualification. Giroud won a penalty, which Mikel Arteta scored to level the scores. A few minutes later, the striker bundled home Arsenal’s second, which was a crucial, crucial goal.  Lukas Podolski made sure of the win in the dying stages of the game as Arsenal claimed a vital three points.

Arsenal were in control of their own fate in terms of Champions League qualification. When Giroud was sent off against Fulham towards the end of the season, it meant he would miss 3 of Arsenal’s final 4 remaining games. He missed Arsenal’s games against Manchester United, QPR and Wigan, with Lukas Podolski taking his place in the team for those games. Arsenal claimed 7 points out of a possible 9 during the three games that Giroud was suspended for, not bad going for a team missing their main striker.

When Giroud was available for selection again away to Newcastle on the final day of the season, Wenger kept his faith in Lukas Podolski, who had scored twice in the previous game against Wigan. Podolski would be replaced by Giroud with 13 minutes left, as the Gunners were 1-0 up thanks to a Laurent Koscielny goal. In the end, Arsenal held on for the vital 1-0 win and booked their place in a Champions League qualifier this August.

Giroud scored 17 goals in his first year in England and provided 10 assists for his team-mates in 47 appearances overall. Not bad going for a man that took his time to settle into the country. His confidence grew as the season went on and you could see that. Sure, he had spells where the ball wasn’t going in the back of the net, but every striker goes through that at some stage in a season – even Van Persie did last season. His stats don’t match up to those that Van Persie produced in his final year at Arsenal, or his first in Manchester, but Giroud pointed out himself that his stats do significantly better those that Van Persie produced in his first season in England.

The French international has been in stunning form during the pre-season and I am expecting him to improve on his goal tally this season. I think he’s become a better player in his first season at the club and I think he will be much improved next term. Time will tell whether Arsene Wenger will bring in a proven goalscorer. Liverpool’s Luis Suarez is the name being linked with a big money move to the Emirates right now. Last month it was Gonzalo Higuain, who has since moved to Napoli. Both Giroud and Podolski have stated they would welcome the signing of Suarez or another top striker, as it would better themselves as players and strengthen the team further.

I think in truth if Arsenal are to be title / trophy contenders next season, they will need somebody like Suarez around to score them 30+ goals. But there’s nothing to say Giroud can’t score a lot of goals next season with some hard work put in.

Also, just a final point of this post. Signing Giroud was superb for the fans, as his song “Na na na na Giroud” which goes to tune of “Hey Jude” by The Beatles is extremely catchy. I was singing this a lot last season, even when it wasn’t a match day!.