Arsenal fans will never forgive Olivier Giroud for this drop in form

Olivier Giroud has revealed he is likely to retire at the end of the season and Arsenal fans will be looking back on his form during the 2015/16 campaign as something they will never forgive him for.

Confirming that he will probably hang up his boots after this term, the Frenchman is set for one final return to the Emirates when he travels to North London with Lille for a Champions League clash in October.

He could get somewhat of a hostile reception upon his comeback, given his move to capital rivals Chelsea, but there is still a large portion of the Gunners fanbase that remembers Giroud fondly. However, regardless of the views on the striker, there is not a single Arsenal supporter that will have forgiven him for the horrendous form he endured in the second half of the 2015/16 season.

Arsenal fans will never forgive Olivier Giroud for this drop in form

After 19 games had been played of the 2015/16 campaign, Arsenal found themselves top of the Premier League, ahead of surprise package Leicester City on goal difference and things were set to stay that way for another few weeks.

Olivier Giroud and Mesut Özil were in the form of their lives as the Frenchman had scored 10 goals in 19 appearances while his German teammate boasted 16 assists from 18 matches, which looked to be putting him well on his way to breaking Thierry Henry's long-standing record of the most assists in a season (20).

However, as the Gunners went into the new year, things started to change as their form began to fluctuate with Giroud and Özil both struggling to make the same impact they had done in the first half of the season.

After scoring twice in a 3-3 draw with Liverpool during matchweek 21, the Frenchman endured a barren run that saw him fail to score in his next 15 games and he didn't find the back of the net again until his side's penultimate test, a 2-2 draw with Manchester City. He then netted a hat-trick in a final day win over Aston Villa.

Having been pretty deadly in front of goal for the first part of the campaign, Giroud's ability seemed to fade and that prevented his partner in crime Özil from grabbing the assist record. With the Frenchman constantly spurning chances set up by him, the German ended the season with 19 assists provided, one short of equalling Henry's sensational feat.

Not only did Özil's form suffer a result of Giroud's inability to score, Arsenal's overall performances did too as inconsistent results throughout the rest of the campaign prevented them from mounting a genuine title challenge. The Gunners bounced around between second and fourth for the rest of the season and ultimately finished as runners-up, 10 points off champions Leicester.

Oh what could've been. It's hard not to think that had Giroud not suffered a tremendous drop in his goalscoring form, things could have turned out very differently for Arsenal that season. Arsène Wenger would have ended his managerial career with a fourth Premier League title while Özil likely would have claimed the assist record that the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes would spend the next years chasing.

A league win for the Gunners could have changed history though. One of football's biggest miracles, in the form of Leicester defying the 5000/1 odds to win the Premier League, while Wenger may have been allowed an extra few years in charge, potentially preventing Mikel Arteta from taking over.

Maybe it turned out for the best that Giroud didn't score many.

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