Arsenal: Olivier Giroud Can Define Himself Against Barcelona

Arsenal often live and die at the whim of Olivier Giroud, but the Frenchman has a premium opportunity to define his image against Barcelona.

Ask ten Arsenal supporters what they think of Olivier Giroud and you will get at least nine answers. Those answers will range from ‘lamp post’ to ‘flat track bully’ to ‘world class’. It’s all a matter of personal opinion.

That variance in opinion comes from four years of development. Or inconsistency, depending on how you look at it. At some point in his Arsenal career, Giroud has been all of those things. He even admitted that the lamp post accusations were rather spot on after his first leg against Monaco.

However, what we must remember is that, in that second leg against Monaco, Giroud was a fiend. An absolute monster. That game was controlled by him and him alone. No one was going to stop him from accomplishing his ends. Unfortunately, he was only one person, so the victory was not enough.

Ideally, it wouldn’t take a piss-poor performance to awaken the beast, and that has often been a problem for Giroud. He oftentimes needs a disaster to perform a miracle.

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As it stands, Olivier Giroud’s ‘mantra’ is still rather undefined. Some people (myself included) hold to the belief that he has always been class and that he has merely improved over time. That camp also believes that he has all the requirements to lead Arsenal to silverware.

Others believe that he has always been rubbish and that he is the main thing holding Arsenal back. Very few players will divide opinions as much as Giroud does.

Therefore this Champions League clash with Barcelona is the best chance Olivier Giroud will have to define who he really is. No mere lamp post or flat track bully maintains relevance against a team like Barcelona.

This first leg is especially huge to judge the progress of Giroud. If Arsenal is ransacked by Barcelona and Giroud squanders 17 chances, then in the second leg he scores two goals and Arsenal fall short, nothing will have been learned. He has done that kind of thing before.