Arsenal Transfer Silence Alleviates All Pressure From Olivier Giroud

Arsenal look to be set with the squad they have, meaning that Olivier Giroud will not face any new arrivals to challenge him. How’s that for pressure?

Since the moment Olivier Giroud arrived at Arsenal, he has never been good enough. Whether it is his lack of pace, lack of dribbling abilities or his supposedly striking similarities to a lamp post, an upgrade has always been necessary. At least that’s what the masses were barking for.

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That can take a toll on the confidence. And it did. Olivier Giroud has had confidence problems for awhile at Arsenal and he has openly admitted to it. These confidence problems are the one thing that has always held back his consistency.

However, it is impossible to deny Giroud’s quality. He scores goes at a better rate than anyone else in England. Even since the day he arrived, his goals per 90 clip has been fantastic and worthy of serious recognition. He even ranks in elite company when it comes to goals per 90 across an entire career in the EPL.

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Ever since Lukas Podolski was weened away from being a striker, however, there has been no direct competition to Olivier Giroud. All-too briefly Theo Walcott was used in the roll. At the start of the year Walcott was given the striker role and Giroud marveled at the effect it had.

The Frenchman pointed out that he had never felt this pressure before and that it was spurring him on to consistently produce his best outings. After being benched for a few games, Giroud rose and retook his rightful position. Yet, since that time, he has again faced no competition and his form has come and gone depending on the week.

I have made my opinion known that I believe a new, true striker to compete with Giroud would work wonders. Wenger has sort of tip-toed around the issue before. He bought Welbeck, who could play on the wings. He bought Poloski, who could also play on the wings. The same goes with Walcott. They all had alternate positions and when they couldn’t compete with Giroud they were called away to another position.

That takes the pressure off Giroud. It shows him that that player is no longer in contention for the position.

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This transfer window, Arsene Wenger has stated that he would rather wait for Danny Welbeck to return rather than sign attacking help. That’s fine, Welbeck will help this Arsenal attack. But he is not an out-and-out striker. It looks like Giroud is the last out-and-out striker Wenger has bought in decades. He always has to tap dance around the issue by buying striking options and then turning them into wide players.

Players like Aleksandr Kokorin and Alexander Pato were out there ready for the taking. They would count as out-and-out strikers that Arsenal could use to keep Giroud’s form in tact. But Wenger will not go for them because he does not want someone that cannot be moved to another position if need be.

The same happened with Francis Coquelin. Wenger did not want to buy another defensive midfielder so he bought a versatile midfielder that could move around in positioning. However, in this case it works because there are so many midfield positions.

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But in Arsenal’s striker situation, it does not work. Giroud needs someone like him to push him. These versatile, could-be strikers will continue to get beaten away.