Why Arsenal Should Trust Olivier Giroud to Lead Them to the Premier League Title

In the midst of Arsenal’s damaging 2-1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, Olivier Giroud’s opening goal was naturally overlooked.

During the international break, Giroud also scored for France in a 2-0 win over Germany, which would quickly become irrelevant following the tragic events that occurred at the Stade de France and across Paris on that same night.

And earlier in November, the 29-year-old scored another wonderful goal—a sumptuous volley—against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena, but the only problem was it came on the same night the Germans scored five goals themselves as Arsenal suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat in the Champions League.

A trend is emerging whereby Giroud keeps scoring, but he is yet to receive the wider recognition his goals and growing status so richly deserve.

So far this season, the former Montpellier man has scored nine goals in just 11 starts for Arsenal. 

This is not just an isolated rich vein of form but instead a pattern spread across the whole of 2015, a calendar year in which only Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero and Jamie Vardy have scored more goals in the Premier League than him. 

If Arsenal could replicate Giroud’s form and class all over the pitch, they would be perched on top of the Premier League and not having this unwelcome wobble.

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For while the French striker keeps scoring and banishing any of those lingering doubts about him, it is instead his team-mates who are currently failing Arsenal.

For so long a problem area in this Arsenal side, Giroud has quietly and effectively made himself the solution up top—even if he’s still waiting for the proper recognition.

Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and even Santi Cazorla are all feted at the Emirates Stadium, and it's time the same treatment was extended to Giroud.

A good deal of Arsenal fans spent the summer hunched over their phones and computers, desperately hoping for news that Arsene Wenger had signed a new striker. 

The theory went that this one signing, preferably Karim Benzema, could transform Arsenal into champions.

But Wenger refused to budge and believed his stable of strikers, including Giroud, Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck, would be good enough.

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The striker had a relatively quiet start to the season, scoring just once in August, a brilliant volley against Crystal Palace, and he was then withdrawn from the starting lineup.

But Giroud has actually benefited from not starting a league game between September and late October, and he has returned with some of his best form.

Arsenal’s fans have an uneasy relationship with Giroud. When all is going well, his style can often epitomise the side, but the counterargument is he doesn’t do enough and misses too many chances. And a good number of supporters can’t shift the feeling they should have someone better leading their forward line.

I also harboured doubts about Giroud, but it is time to admit I was wrong; Arsenal possess a striker capable of leading them to the title.

The France international brings presence, an aerial threat and the ability to hold the ball up to the Arsenal forward line. But above all, he is a class act—both a scorer of great goals and a great goalscorer.

The main job of a striker is to provide goals, and Giroud has certainly done that since arriving at the Emirates three-and-a-half years ago.

In 153 games for Arsenal, he has scored 67 goals, which is more than anyone else at the club. If Arsenal are looking for scapegoats, Giroud is not your man.

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The problem for Giroud is he’s been largely scoring in losing teams of late. Orbinho found the unhelpful statistic that Arsenal’s win percentage is 36 per cent when the Frenchman has started this season, while the figure climbs to 78 per cent with Theo Walcott starting.

The pair have become rivals for that starting spot, but they are entirely different players who bring contrasting qualities to the forward line. Wenger will probably—wisely—persist with using them when they are best suited to a game.

But in Arsenal’s crowded midfield, Wenger already boasts a surplus of small, skilful and quick players—do they really need another one up front as well?

The Frenchman brings something different, a physical presence for these players to work around. Above all, though, he is a more reliable scorer than Walcott. Since Giroud's arrival in the summer of 2012, the England international has 38 goals.

Giroud has too easily and unfairly been cast as the modest model Arsenal need to upgrade, conveniently ignoring how he continues to consistently score goals for the club.

It is time to show the Frenchman a bit more love, for Arsenal’s current problems are not of his making, and he should be trusted to lead this side on a title challenge for the rest of the season.