Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal Greats Need To Back Off And Accept Olivier Giroud

By Josh Sippie

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Maybe the super secret club that all the Arsenal greats created has a secret agenda to keep downplaying Olivier Giroud in the hopes that it fires him up. First Thierry Henry, now Martin Keown – nobody thinks Olivier Giroud can take Arsenal to the promised land.

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They are wrong.

If there is one thing Olivier Giroud does well, it is score goals. He may flounder an opportunity or two, but who doesn’t? RVP does, Messi does, Ibrahimovic does; people miss chances, that is what makes them people.

“I’m not sure he is up there with some of the greats that have played in the past. [A world-class striker] would take Arsenal to the next level and it would galvanise the group. It raises the bar, the rest of the group become more competitive, and there is real competition for places,” Keown all-knowingly stated via the Express.

Having always been a fan of Keown, it makes it tough to criticize his criticism but what was he thinking? He has joined the masses out there that A. don’t see how valuable Olivier Giroud is to this attack, B. think that there are tons of world class strikers available and C. take everything out on Giroud.

Olivier Giroud is coming up on his 100th appearance for Arsenal. In his first 99 EPL appearances he has netted 42 goals. Only Thiery Henry (59), Ian Wright (56) and the all-popular Emmanuel Adebayor (44) scored more in their first 100 appearances, via the Independent.

RELATED: Is Giroud misjudged by Arsenal?

What do you want a striker to do? If you answered anything other than ‘score goals’ then there is something wrong. Well guess what, Keown, only three guys in the history of Arsenal, the vast, vast history of Arsenal, have scored more goals for the club than Olivier Giroud through their first 100 games. Something about that little fact screams “he is enough,” maybe even that “he is great.”

The only relevant point Keown made was that Arsenal need some competition at the striker spot, but that does not have to come from external signings. That can just as easily and more desirably come from Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck. Walcott has proven that he can be class at the striker position and with his new contract in hand, it is time that he comes out and shows it.

Danny Welbeck, too, has a ton to prove and he needs to start doing so. Once he returns from injury, I would not be surprised to see a transformed Welbeck, after all, it has been the case in the past that a player returns from injury at Arsenal with inspired form.

The point is that Keown is lashing out at the wrong striker. Olivier Giroud is doing his job – he is scoring goals. That is all you should want and need from a striker. Flashy moves and cute tricks are fun to watch but seeing the back of the net bulge briefly is much more beautiful and that is the only trick Olivier Giroud needs.

The only Arsenal great that seems to have hit the nail on the head is Ian Wright, who said back in May (via ESPNFC):

"“I love him [Giroud]. He is a fantastic player. He doesn’t get a lot of credit and even Thierry [Henry] is saying that we won’t win the league with him which is very unfair, because it’s the players you have around you that helps to win games. It’s not just the one player up front.One player up front cannot win you the league anywhere and that is why you need the team to help you. When you are averaging double-digit goals every season and you got help around you, then you should be able to do enough to win the league.”"

Cheers to Ian Wright for doing the unpopular thing and standing up for a player that deserves it.

The only negative thing that can be said about Giroud is that he hit a cold streak at the end of last year. But again, who doesn’t hit cold streaks? In the 1998/99 season, Dennis Bergkamp did not score until October 4th. If Olivier Giroud did not score in a season until October 4th, he would be tarred, feathered and run out of town.

What Arsenal have in Olivier Giroud is a proven goalscorer with the ability to link up play. His passing ability is tremendously underrated. Here, even Giroud deserves a montage:

There you have it, if you want a striker with tricks, flicks and flips, Olivier Giroud has those too.

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The Frenchman has increased his overall goal tally in each year and if he keeps up the pace he is on, he will work his way into some elite company in terms of scoring goals at Arsenal. Assuming he can keep up this pace for the next few years, he could very easily notch another 90 goals for the club and put himself in the top ten all-time Arsenal goal scorers, and he had a very late start to his Arsenal career, very similar to Bergkamp.

Olivier Giroud is going to keep scoring goals for Arsenal and chances are he is going to keep getting undervalued. Obviously Karim Benzema would be a welcome addition, but no matter how much you want a guy, if his club will not sell, they will not sell. Again, Wenger’s supermarket analogy is spot on. It is not like Arsenal can just waltz into a market, find the world-class strikers in aisle 9 and ring a few up. That is not how it works.

Giroud is world class at scoring goals. If you want world class in pace or dribbling, then you can find it in Alexis.

Next: Benzema's price tag is not the hold up

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