Olivier Giroud’s Performance Against Totteham Deserves Credit

Olivier Giroud missed three premium chances to put Arsenal a goal to the advantage, all three off of his most powerful weapon as well – the old noggin. In typical Arsenal supporter fashion, the haters were out in full force to berate Arsenal’s striker for his plethora of opportunities missed. While Giroud surely could have done more with his chances, the hateful outbursts are a bit much.

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Olivier Giroud has been unstoppable recently. He has scored seven in his last eight and his goals per ninety is still below one. He is the only striker in the Premier League to boast that stat.

Let’stalk about the three chances Giroud had. The first one that went off the crossbar is hard to fault him for. There is no shame in hitting the crossbar. Not in the least. It is frustrating, sure, but it is still a great effort.

The second attempt is the one that Olivier Giroud deserves the most criticism for. He yet again beat everyone to the ball with his head and instead of coolly placing it on goal, he flicked his head. Granted, it still only missed by a fraction of a hair, it still could have been handled better.

The third was the only one that caused Hugo Lloris to make a save, but it was by far his tamest effort. That’s not to say that it was weak though. Giroud was on the back foot when his head met the ball, but he compensated by putting the ball into the ground and hoping for a fortuitous bounce. Lloris played it perfectly and parried it away.

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The criticism that Olivier Giroud is taking would suggest that he took the first one off of the top of his head, whiffed the second and smashed the third one into the center of his face. These were three quality efforts and of course that counts for little to nothing but it is still nothing to be so heavily criticized.

Despite missing the chances, one fact was quite clear. He was still making these chances happen. He was beating everyone to the ball.

Olivier Giroud came off of each successive effort angrier and angrier. It was clear that he was on a mission to score a goal. Arsene Wenger spoke of this passion after the match. “He is very angry. I am pleased [with that]. When you see a player who is happy to miss chances, you can worry. He wanted too much to score — especially the opportunity he had in the six-yard box. But it can happen. I accept that,” Le Prof said, as quoted by the Metro.

Wenger has hit the nail on the head. It may seem incredibly counter-intuitive to be pleased with someone who missed three clear chances, but we should be. Olivier Giroud fought for ninety minutes. His effort only got better as the game progressed. Aerially, he was untouchable. He won more aerials than anyone other than Kyle Walker, who was dealing with an ever-over-anxious Alexis.

Giroud was beating a center back pairing that has started every game together and given up the third fewest goals in the Premier League. He was beating them all match. While none of his efforts turned into goals, he still deserves as least a few high marks for that tremendous effort.

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The only negative here is that international break has gone and plopped itself right in front of Giroud’s mass of frustration that would in all likelihood have been unleashed next weekend.

Olivier Giroud is only going to keep getting better. It is what he has been doing since he arrived at Arsenal. This frustration that we are seeing at not being able to score a goal is going to play to his advantage.