Arsenal Cannot Keep Relying On Strong Olivier Giroud

Olivier Giroud stated that he has scored late goals because of his mental and physical strength. Nonetheless, Arsenal cannot continue to rely on the striker.

There is a rather odd narrative running through this Arsenal season. For many seasons they have rightly been criticised for being soft, lacking the winning attitude and the mental fortitude needed to sustain a title challenge over a long and arduous season.

Such attributes are intangible. There is no measurable way in which a side’s mental toughness can be compared to another’s. It’s not as simple as being able to run the 100 metres in 11 seconds or being able to complete 90% of your passes. It cannot be described by a number.

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One way to measure a team’s attitude is to track their ability to win games and rescue points late in games. The great Manchester United side’s under Sir Alex Ferguson had a wonderful knack of scoring late, late goals. It is a skill that this current Arsenal side also boast, primarily thanks to Olivier Giroud. When asked about his ability to score incredibly important goals, Giroud heralded his physical and mental strength:

"“I don’t know if I am a better striker, maybe I am. I’ve obviously improved myself since I signed for Arsenal, but I always try to be stronger [physically] and stronger in my head as well. I’ve always tried to bring something to the team and I was very pleased to score important goals, especially in the final minutes. But as I’ve said before, we need to be stronger at the beginning of the games because I’m not going to score goals in the last minute every week!”"

However, the Gunners cannot keep relying on their Frenchman to bail them out. While the many late goals that Arsene Wenger’s side have scored so far this season are not down to luck – it is a very difficult skill to master, based on excellent physical fitness and a never-say-die attitude – it is not a sustainable way of winning.

As Giroud himself notes, Arsenal must start putting teams to bed earlier in games. Earlier in the year, the Gunners were beating teams with relative ease, seeing off the opposition early in games without having the stress and the difficulty of overcoming teams in the closing stages.

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If their title hopes, hopes that a rather thin anyway given the formidable form of Chelsea this season, are to ever be satisfied, then Wenger must find a way to engineer his team chances to win games without relying on late heroics.

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