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Arsenal Blame Falling On Olivier Giroud For No Reason
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal failed to score for the third straight Premier League match and naturally, the blame has been redirected at Olivier Giroud. However, the Frenchman is blameless.
It is hard to win the league when you can’t score goals. Arsenal has now gone three Premier League matches watching chance after chance get squandered by someone or another. Naturally, Giroud’s ‘supporters’ have turned into dubbing him the French lamp post yet again.
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This is blatantly wrong. Olivier Giroud is not to blame for the situation this team finds itself in. He still maintains one of the best minutes-per-goal ratio in the world of football. But players have bad games.
The blame here lies with Arsene Wenger. He is asking Giroud to do something impossible. He is asking Giroud to go out to the front lines every single match, Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, and maintain impeccable form. That is not possible. No one can do that. It is infuriating that Wenger thinks that Giroud can.
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Everyone has their bad days. There were times when Sergio Aguero was taking a back seat to Wilfried Bony. It happens. It’s part of being human. Giroud is going to have bad days and it is absolutely ludicrous that anyone should think he won’t.
When he has bad days through, someone has to be there to take the helm and Wenger seems to think that an injured Danny Welbeck is capable of this.
There are so many things wrong with this concept that it is sickening, so I will just highlight a few. For starters, he’s hurt. He’s been hurt since April.
Secondly, Welbeck is no guaranteed goal scorer! You know how seriously I am taking this because I never use exclamation points! It is downright ridiculous to try to get into the head of Arsene Wenger to understand his striker policy. He won’t spend £4m on Charlie Austin or Aleksandr Kokorin, but he will spend £7m on a midfielder that we didn’t necessarily need and who he won’t necessarily play.
Remember what Charlie Austin did in his first game with Southampton? He came on with 11 minutes to go and scored to sink Manchester United. That’s how subs are supposed to work! When your starters aren’t clicking, you bring on a fresh, confident mind.
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Arsenal does not have that luxury. They don’t even have another striker because Giroud has had to carry the load all by himself. Now that he is so deeply embedded within the framework of this offense, Wenger is too scared to imagine a world where Giroud is not on the pitch. So he spares himself the pain by not providing another option.
Arsenal do not need Edinson Cavani or Robert Lewandowski. Wenger doesn’t have to spend big to find a solution. All he would need is someone to spot Giroud when the Frenchman sputters. That’s it. That is a job that Austin, Kokorin, Alexandre Pato and more could have done.
Every team out there has options up front. Bayern has Lewandowski and Muller, Madrid has the BBC, Jese and Isco, Manchester United have Martial and Rooney – it’s part of the game. You have to have options or you get stale and dull.
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I consider myself an eternal optimist that keeps the faith in Wenger through it all, but this result against Southampton shook that confidence. When it gets bad – and it consistently gets bad – Arsenal has to find a way to provide options. If Theo Walcott is Arsenal’s option, I am fearful.