Arsenal: Someone needs to throw Olivier Giroud a bone

Arsenal has a pretty poor recipe on hand for Olivier Giroud, whose frustrations are obvious. Isn’t it time someone throws him a bone?

Arsenal nation is ready and waiting to welcome Olivier Giroud into the 100 goal club, but he is stuck at 99. Normally, that wouldn’t seem like a problem, but the problem is in the recipe that Arsene Wenger seems to be cooking with regarding his big French striker.

In short – it’s not a recipe for success. Giroud is only getting around 15 to 20 minutes in Premier League fixtures to make his case and usually, by the time he comes on, the Gunners are either content with the scoreline (recently), tired and shifting personnel (Chelsea) or down and out (Liverpool).

Games like Leicester City, where a hero is needed, haven’t been all that prevalent. Chelsea could have been one such opportunity, but he only had 17 minutes and Chelsea were down to ten men, which prompted the shell.

Meanwhile, when he does start in the Europa League and League Cup, he is paired with youngsters that aren’t exactly keen on simply serving up crosses. That isn’t what they do with the U23s and therefore it may not always occur to them to do that with Giroud in the middle.

Against FC Koln, for example, there were only six accurate crosses. It’s hard for Giroud to do anything with that.

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Even in his seven minutes against West Brom, the scenes were predictable. Giroud was pressing and pressing but his team mates, who had secured the 2-0 lead, were content to sit on the match and let it play out. Making Giroud’s appearance nothing more than a cameo.

And yet he still managed to selflessly set up Granit Xhaka’s flubbed effort.

At what point do we throw Giroud a bone? Yes, that 100th goal will come with time, but can’t we gear his appearances more towards his strengths? It feels awfully cruel to only send him out there when he isn’t going to receive proper service. You are robbing him of his greatest strength.

Not just that, but on a personal note, his 100th goal really should come from his head.

But regardless, the big man is such a valuable weapon that is being completely wasted. His cameo appearances are a slight on his loyalty and Arsene Wenger’s refusal to play him alongside Alexandre Lacazette only shows that very little is likely to change going forward.

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Giroud doesn’t just deserve 100. He deserves 120, hell why not more? The team is winning, that’s the important thing, but with these wins comes opportunities to press the issue and score more goals and Giroud is not being given a chance to do that.

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