Arsenal: Olivier Giroud Shouting Revelation Says So Much

Arsenal has always had an Olivier Giroud debate, but continued revelation say so much about the big man and his worth to the club.

You won’t find a more hotly-contested Arsenal player than Olivier Giroud. The big Frenchman is always under the microscope and any misstep, from an off-target shot to a seven second dance, is going to be heavily criticized.

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Here at Pain in the Arsenal, I am often accused of thinking Giroud can do no wrong. But the truth of it is I just overly praise him to try to counteract how negatively some critics look at him. So much so that it is grossly unfair and to try to balance it, I have to overly praise him.

So let’s do that again.

Giroud absolutely saved a point against Bournemouth and while it should have been an easy win. It wasn’t and we made the most of it. Without Giroud, we drop that extra point.

Against Preston, it was the same thing. The midtable Championship side took this club down the to wire, scoring first, holding tight, and showing an ugly, soft core in the Gunners, a soft core that we thought was long gone.

It changed at half. Something changed at half, I should say. The Gunners were anemic in the first half and you could tell from the moment they stepped out in the second half that something had changed.

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Well, we have Olivier Giroud to thank again. Captain for the day, Olivier Giroud could be heard on camera shouting at his team mates to “show some authority”.

So to everyone that wants to say that Giroud doesn’t have the right mindset because of his seven second dance, consider how seriously he took his captain’s armband. This man saw his team performing well under their norm and he criticized them for the one thing that they lacked – authority.

There is no reason that a team like this, even with no Ozil and no Alexis, should be losing to Preston. They have the talent to show authority and conquer lower oppositions.

Giroud saw that and called them out on it. He took his job as a leader seriously and he did what so few at Arsenal want to do – grab the team by the scruff and right the ship.

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He’d go on to score the winning goal thanks in part to a beautiful backheel from Lucas. Call that karma.