Olivier Giroud Faces a Fight to Reclaim Arsenal Spot from Danny Welbeck

Olivier Giroud is currently embroiled in a battle to regain fitness. Having suffered a fractured tibia in August, he is enduring an intensive rehabilitation process to get his season back on track. However, once he returns to the squad, he’ll face another fight: Danny Welbeck is unlikely to give up his place in the team in a hurry.

The good news for Giroud is that he is making swift progress. Originally ruled out for three to four months, manager Arsene Wenger has hinted that he is ahead of schedule. In an interview with beIN Sports (h/t Aaron Flanagan of the Daily Mirror), Wenger said: "I believe he is ahead of schedule in terms of rehabilitation. The operation went perfectly."

Giroud will come back into a different Arsenal squad. Last season, he was accustomed to being the sole senior centre-forward at the club. This year, he finds himself in direct competition with a worthy rival in Welbeck.

It will be unsettling for Giroud, who has previously had the luxury of knowing he would be first-choice week-in week-out.

In the past, Wenger has suggested that security was important to Giroud’s confidence. In January 2014, the Arsenal manager gambled by choosing not to sign competition for his frontman. He wanted the France international to know he was Arsenal’s main man, hoping that show of faith would bring out the best in the burly forward.

To an extent, that strategy was successful. Giroud’s fitness held up well throughout 2013/14, although the strain eventually began to tell. In the latter part of the campaign, he looked mentally and physically drained.

At the start of this season, there was an indication that he had lost his place as the undisputed first-choice centre-forward. Away to Everton in Arsenal’s second Premier League game of the campaign, he found himself on the substitutes bench with Alexis Sanchez preferred as the starting striker. That move could be interpreted as a sign that Wenger was looking to restructure his attack to harness the one attribute Giroud lacks: pace.

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On the day, the plan didn’t work. Giroud came on to score a crucial equaliser, but it was in that very same game that he picked up that fateful injury. Wenger subsequently moved to sign Welbeck, and the former Manchester United man has since set about making himself at home as Arsenal’s centre-forward.

Welbeck shares many of Giroud’s qualities. He is selfless, strong and a good link player. However, he has something the Frenchman never will: speed. That gives the Arsenal attack another dimension, offering a threat in behind. Going back to starting Giroud may feel like a regressive step.

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In his beIN Sports interview, Wenger was insistent the pair could play together: "Welbeck played in the same team with Rooney and Van Persie. He can play down the sides. Yes I think they could play together or separately."

However, that seems like an attempt to calm a potentially problematic situation on the horizon. Managers often say such selection dilemmas are the sort of problem they long to have, but keeping two international centre-forwards happy will be no easy task. Having escaped Old Trafford to play through the middle, Welbeck is unlikely to be enthused at being confined to the wing once more.

Of course, Wenger could pair Giroud and Welbeck in a traditional front two, but it’s been a long time since Arsenal used that system regularly. Wenger seems wedded to some variation of the 4-5-1 system he has used since 2006.

According to John Cross of the Daily Mirror, Giroud has already agreed a lucrative long-term contract. He is not going anywhere in a hurry but neither is Welbeck. The two strikers seem set to face off in a fight to be the Gunners' top marksman.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout the 2014/15 season. Follow him on Twitter here.