Arsenal: 10 Massive Things We Learned About Gunners In 2016

4. Olivier Giroud supply line has been cut

It used to be that Arsenal lived and died by the performance of Olivier Giroud. If he was fit and firing, Arsenal won. If he was stumbling and bumbling around the pitch, Arsenal lost. That is no longer the case.

Whereas there used to be one clear-cut supply line through which everything flowed (team–> Giroud –> Goal –> Win) there are not numerous supply lines with which to achieve those last two endings. Ozil, Alexis, Walcott, Cazorla, the Ox, Iwobi – all of these guys have found new, innovative ways to threaten the goal and even score for themselves.

That is a big deal. Arsenal has a multi-faceted attack that can strike from numerous angles. They don’t just loft balls into the box and hope the big man can put it away (although Ozil needs to do that more…. more on that later).

The more this gets honed, the better the likelihood that the Gunner’s can continue to build on this illusive consistency that seems to be such a bugger to catch.

While we are on the subject of Giroud, let’s talk about him some more at No. 3.