Arsenal: Olivier Giroud injury impresses key restriction

Arsene Wenger confirmed that Olivier Giroud will miss Friday night’s match against Liverpool. The Frenchman’s injury severely restricts the versatility of the Arsenal attack. He may not start, but his absence will be noticed.

Injuries are inevitable. Football is a physical sport, and with the technological and medical advancements of modern time, players are becoming more and more fine-tuned, meaning that they are increasingly susceptible to injuries.

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Arsenal, as history has indicated, struggle greatly with injuries. Many of their seasons have been scuppered by extended absences for key players of the squad. Santi Cazorla, for example, is unlikely to play this season, having missed the most of the previous year with a horrific ankle injury.

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And now, the Gunners must deal with another injury at a crucial period of the year. After he limped off in the quarter-final win against West Ham United on Tuesday night, Arsene Wenger confirmed that Olivier Giroud would miss Friday’s match against Liverpool, as well as more time afterwards, though the extent was not yet known. Here is what the Arsenal manager said in his post-match press conference:

"“It doesn’t look very good for him. I think he’s out of Friday night. Nowadays you do the scan 48 hours after the injury. That will happen on Thursday, then we’ll have a precise kind of grade on what his hamstring is. When you listen to him, the pain is quite big, but the grade is not always linked with the intensity of the pain.”"

That is not good. At any time of the year, it is never beneficial to have an injury. But given that Arsenal play 10 games in 44 days starting on Friday night, if they beat Nottingham Forest and qualify for the FA Cup fourth round, there are few worse times that Giroud could have picked up an injury.

And although the Frenchman is not a regular starter with Alexandre Lacazette having taken his place, he is still valuable to this squad. He offers a unique threat thanks to his size, strength and aerial ability, something that no other player in the squad can replicate.

That significantly restricts the versatility of the Gunners’ attack. They cannot throw balls into the box and ask Giroud to compete for them. Their threat from wide areas will be limited somewhat and they will be a little one-dimensional, dependent on the ingenuity of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez to produce something magic.

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Giroud is not the most popular figure among North London circles. Some see him as a lumbering, lethargic, limp centre-forward, whose immobility harms the potency of the team’s attack. But he is different and he is unique. And that is important. His absence will be felt.