Arsenal: Everton win exposes Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud

In Tuesday night’s hard-earned win over Norwich, Arsenal’s attacking bluntness ran in stark contrast to their blistering display against Everton at the weekend. The disparity exposes the lack of intelligent movement of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott.

In the summer transfer window, Arsene Wenger broke the club transfer record to bring Alexandre Lacazette to the Emirates. It was a move that has been many years in the waiting. Arsenal have lacked a genuine and consistent goalscorer with sharp, dynamic movement in and around the penalty area. Fans have been calling for investment. It never came.

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The man who had been starting was Olivier Giroud. The towering Frenchman, who replaced Robin van Persie in the summer of 2012, has been a steady and reliable striker. Although streaky, suffering undulations in confidence as goals flow and then dry up, Giroud has continually scored in the 15-goal range each and every season.

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But there were restrictions that he placed on the Arsenal attack as a whole. Because of his immobility, his struggles in running the channels, and his ineffectiveness when drifting into wide channels, space was difficult to create in central areas. With Giroud always playing with his back to goal and looking to bring others into play with neat touches and flicks, it allowed the opposing defence to play narrow and compress the time that the Arsenal midfielders had to work with.

On the other hand, Lacazette is rarely stationary. He is always on the move, whether it be darting in behind, scampering out wide, or dropping deep into midfield and picking the ball up with time and space. That incessant movement oils the attack. With intelligent, spatially aware players around him, Lacazette’s willingness to run off the ball provides them with opportunities to drift into those pockets of space in between the defence and midfield.

It was that attacking strategy that led to such a blistering display against Everton at the weekend. Arsenal scored five goals, engineered 30 attempts, and had more shots on target than Manchester City have allowed against them all season.

Contrast that display to the limp, anaemic, blunt showing against Norwich City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night. The 2-1 win required extra-time and a late-game heist by Eddie Nketiah. But for much of the game, despite dominating possession and controlling the game, they struggled to create many clear-cut chances. And that is down to the lack of intelligent movement from the most advanced players.

While Giroud was hardly moving whatsoever, sticking to the central position that he usually does, Theo Walcott was seemingly camped offside. The timing and direction of his runs were poor. He lacked incision in his movement. He did not show any nous or guile in trying to create space for either himself or those around him. Put simply, he played dumb football.

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In coming just two days after the 5-2 devastation of Everton, the struggles that the movement of Walcott and Giroud cause this team are only accentuated. Arsenal lacked any semblance of cutting edge on Tuesday, against a Championship calibre side. It would not be fair to pin all that on one or two players. But Walcott and Giroud, as the two most senior players in the side, must take their fair share.