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Arsenal: Quick Forwards Far Better Than Olivier Giroud
Arsenal’s two-forward combination of Iwobi and Welbeck worked a treat as an attacking duo. Are they better options for the long term than Olivier Giroud?
Arsene Wenger used both Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck as his forward players against Everton on Sunday, and it worked an absolute treat. Both players found the net on assists from Alexis Sanchez and Hector Bellerin respectively, and they occupied the Everton defenders for the entire ninety minutes.
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Iwobi started on the left side of attacking midfield, partnered by Alexis Sanchez on the right and the danger man Mesut Ozil through the middle. The three operated with free movement, interchanging in attacking moves but all moving with and around Danny Welbeck, who was the sole ‘forward’ player.
Two of the four attacking players made at least three tackles in the match – Alex Iwobi made four, in fact – and two attacking players made five successful dribbles. It made for a very successful attacking performance, and one that Wenger will no doubt be looking to replicate going forward this season.
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Alex Iwobi, as mentioned on ArsenalfanTV on Sunday, bossed the attacking third and was constantly making effective runs off the ball. The ways in which he combined with Welbeck have not been on display so far this season.
Olivier Giroud has been the preferred man in attack for the Gunners, and we can see why…
Sort of.
He’s been at the club longer, he’s earned his spot (I suppose), and he has been somewhat effective, looking at his goal-to-game ratio from the first half of the season.
However, Arsenal are forced to play in quite a predictable fashion when Giroud is in the lineup. Full backs are forced to cross when in the final third, due to Giroud only being able to convert chances from close range with one or two touches.
Not only that, the star play-maker Mesut Ozil is incapable of using his world-class interplay skills to combine with his forward. That’s because his forward – the Frenchman Giroud, that is – is not good enough with the ball at his feet to play with Ozil like that.
Danny Welbeck is not a world-class dribbler. Nobody is claiming that. However, the Englishman is able to make runs in behind defenders and he is also able to use his speed – something Giroud, as we all know, lacks.
The attacking midfielders such as Alexis and Ozil love being able to pass to feet, and then follow it up with their own attacking run. Giroud’s enthusiasm to play with one touch means they can’t use their creativity, and it leads to what we think of as ‘boring Arsenal football’.
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This season there has been a lot of Giroud due to Welbeck being injured for nearly seven months of the 2015-16 campaign.
Obviously we can talk about whether or not Arsenal would be better if he had been healthy at the beginning of the season. We can write about if Iwobi had been given an opportunity earlier, wouldn’t Arsenal be better off, etc.
It doesn’t matter at this point, because right now these two forwards are the ones playing with positivity and Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott are well and truly off the boil.
Next: Santi Cazorla A Byproduct of Arsenal's New Regime
It’s easy to say as an Arsenal fan, “please play these two forwards more.” Arsenal always seem to go on positive runs once they get knocked out of European competition, and if these two things can coexist this season perhaps there is an outside chance of surpassing Spurs, and even competing with Leicester City.
An outside chance.