Arsenal: Olivier Giroud injury does nothing for Alexandre Lacazette

With Olivier Giroud pulling a ham string, many have extrapolated that this means more Arsenal game time for Alexandre Lacazette. It doesn’t.

Olivier Giroud pulled up limp in Arsenal’s Carabao Cup win over West Ham in what looked to be a sure hamstring injury. As of writing, no timetable has been set, but it was serious enough to force a determined player off immediately, meaning weeks will be needed.

Some have taken to social media to celebrate that this may finally mean that Alexandre Lacazette can play 90 minutes.

For starters, I detest this line of thinking, because it sells Giroud tragically short of how important he is to this club. But secondly, it means no such thing. The fact that Giroud is hurt has literally no impact on Lacazette as an individual.

All it means is that the plan will go forward with different participants.

It became clear early on that taking off Lacazette never had anything to do with forcing game time towards Giroud. There was at least one match where Giroud was never even brought on, with Danny Welbeck coming on instead.

Plus, think about our first match against Liveprool. With Lacazette benched, Giroud was nowhere near either.

Giroud is not the man preventing Lacazette from playing 90 minutes. Arsene Wenger is. And the plan to shelter Lacazette from England will go forward in any number of ways.

The first of which is increased involvement for Theo Walcott, which is just as terrifying as it sounds. I made the mistake of getting exited for Walcott to face West Ham and he answered that excitement with one of his worst performances to date.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

The second is by utilizing Welbeck instead of Giroud, which, as mentioned, has been done in the past and can certainly be done again.

The third and most likely option is by forcing Alexis Sanchez to be a striker. This was the choice tactic by Wenger in both matches where he opted to sit the record-signing Frenchman and seeing as how Wenger somehow has some misbegotten faith in this option, will probably seek it out again going forwad.

All of these options will be emerging in Wenger’s head as solutions to his contrived problem of needing to keep Lacazette from playing 90 minutes.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against West Ham

If anything, Giroud was good for Lacazette, because at least he was coming off for another striker, one who has a superb pedigree for scoring goals. Instead, we are now forced to cope with something quite different.

Home/Arsenal News