Arsenal: Alexandre Lacazette absence has but one solution

Arsenal will be without Alexandre Lacazette for the crucial match against Manchester United, but fear not, the solution is here and it is obvious.

It’s a real bummer that Arsenal will be without Alexandre Lacazette for the clash with Manchester United, as I was looking forward to him showing Romelu Lukaku what a real striker looks like, but alas, that responsibility will fall on another man.

The way I see it, while Lacazette’s absence is obviously not a good thing, we all wish he was healthy, the one good thing that comes from it is that whoever it is, Olivier Giroud or Danny Welbeck (please don’t start Alexis Sanchez up front), both will have a rare chance to assert themselves.

Neither has had that chance with Lacazette healthy because he has been too crucial to the workings of the attack. So both will know the stakes and both will have to be in top form because we are most likely going to see both at some point during the fixture.

That said, to me, there is only one solution, and that is Olivier Giroud. The Frenchman has been nothing but fantastic with his handling of his situation at Arsenal and he doesn’t just deserve this start, he has earned it.

For those of you that are given a bit of pause, I will vanquish that pause like the Ents vanquished the evil at Isengard.

The first part is quite simple. Other than Charlie Austin, no other Premier League is scoring more frequently than Olivier Giroud. And if you want to take that a step further, when you factor out all of the players who have limited playing time and get down to players with just 200+ minutes registered, there is only one man in the world who is scoring more frequently than Giroud, and that man is Edinson Cavani, who scores 1.4 goals per 90 compared to Giroud’s (and Austin’s) 1.2.

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Numbers aside, it must be said that through the struggles that Giroud has had as a super sub, 90% of those problems aren’t his finishing or his lack of pace. 90% of those problems comes down to the club not playing to his strengths. He’s been coming on in garbage time when the Gunners are tucked back and defending a lead.

There hasn’t been a good time to be Giroud between Leicester City and Huddersfield. Both were completely different situations. Leicester was a case of needing a hero and Huddersfield was a case of just enjoying our football. But the result is the same.

Giroud seamlessly filled the gap that Lacazetteleft when he was taken off. He took his chances well and sure, he could have had two more goals at least, he has to be given some leeway for rust.

Not just that, but his ability in the air is going to be crucial against a menacing United aerial game, with the likes of Lukaku, Smalling, Fellaini, Jones, Zlatan – the list is pretty fierce and pretty tall. Arsenal is not. Giroud will be needed.

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Let’s not overthink this. Yes, it’s fun when Welbeck scores against United, but it’s more fun to conclusively beat them 3-0 and Giroud is the best option to do that.

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