Olivier Giroud admits that winning the Ballon d’Or would be a dream but insists he’ll continue setting himself realistic goals as he has done throughout his career.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League game against Napoli the incredibly handsome 27-year-old attacker also defiantly underlined that improvement in his goal stats this season won’t solely be down to new boy Mesut Ozil.
“This is a dream,” the HFB told France Football (snippets featured in Le 10 Sport) when asked if he has his eyes on becoming the world’s best player.
“But what has made me a success so far is that I always set reasonable goals.
“I grew up like this, step by step. Before thinking about the Ballon d’Or, before being one of the world’s top ten players, I’ve got to be in the top ten strikers in England.
“I’m working on imposing myself as one of the top ten and I’d like to do that this year. That is a short-term goal.”
Asked whether he’s worried that people might attribute any upturn in goal scoring to the arrival of Mesut Ozil, the Frenchman stressed that he’s already proved himself capable of finding the prior to the German’s arrival.
“It [Arsenal’s signing of Ozil] can be a double-edged sword, it’s true,” he said.
“Right now I’m on fire – and we have just signed a superb number 10 who will bring plenty to the table.
“People will start to say it’s easy to score at Arsenal now that Ozil is here – that if Giroud scores, it’s because of Ozil. But I was scoring before he arrived.”
Speaking at his pre-Napoli press conference, Arsene Wenger also touched on Giroud’s improvement since last summer stressing that he’s now in the peak years of his career and well placed to become even better.
“Giroud is already (one of the leading strikers in Europe). I think will he improve and be better in all the aspects of his game. As long as all the aspects are there, the attitude is there as well. At 27, you always think the best years are coming for him now.
“I am never surprised by the improvement of the players, because that gives you the feeling that we are doing the right things. For him, the jump from Montpellier to Arsenal was quite big. In the first season, it is always quite difficult.”
Giroud is brilliant! He’s gonna get atleast 40 goals this season. I’m sure of it! All hail the amazing and beautiful Giroud!
calm down mate, 30 will be fine. 40 is unfortunately unreasonable for anbody in the premier league, this aint spain mate, our league is hard
i know this is off topic, but have to ask: what’s up with frimpong ?? is he injured?? is he on loan?? what is it ??
I would believe his answer to your comment is: Dench
Who cares? haha
LEAVE it, yeah!
Ozil to Giroud in no bad thing for the HFB. They can play off each other, plus this season more than any other we can score goals all over the pitch and at any moment. COYG Giroud AND Ozil to score tonight!?
I think they’re referring solely to the press effect Ozil may have: 1) Giroud scores, “oh it’s thanks to Ozil”; or 2) Giroud doesn’t score “even with Ozil?!”. Basically the concerns of idiot journalists.
Of course its great that Ozil and Giroud are teammates.
I think HFB already has golden balls
lotto numbers please.
Haha Mistic Meg predicts that Spurs will do Shit this season!
Word on the street is that Higgy Smalls is 50/50 for tonight’s game.
Higgy Smalls is the illest.
I’d say he is top ten strikers in England already? Time to get in top five with Luiz, Aguero, Rooney and the cnt.
For just this season, he’s in the top 5, if not #2 behind… oh god.. Sturridge…
Lukaku .
He’s a much better player than Lukaku. He’s also much better than that Soldado bollocks. He faces tough competition from Rooney, Van Persie, Suarez, Aguero, Sturridge, Dzeko, Negredo and Benteke, though I think he’s definitely pushing the top 5 of those.
Giroud has improved and all, but i can’t help but feel we’d have been better with Higuain. Say what you want, Higuain is better, and would have pushed Giroud to get better. I feel Wenger switched attention to Suarez cos he can play together with Giroud and he decided bringing in Higuain would kill his confidence. But anyways, Giroud has exceeded my expectations and i hope he can keep it up.
He’s more skillful and a better finisher without question but does he have the same fight in him? That’s been vital to us recently. Sometimes I’ve seen higuain and thought he’s got it all and other times he seems to go missing, but then I’ve only seen him play a handful of times.
True. I don’t really think it’s right to compare the two, they’re very different players. Giroud is much more of a target man, a complete fucking handful for any centre back we play against. His hold-up play and interplay are magnificent, and we’ve seen that he’s become a striker with great movement and a great finish on him as well. His touch is also world-class. I know he pulls the shot wide in the end, but look at his first two touches here http://arsenalist.com/f/swansea-vs-arsenal/gif-giroud-great-chance-to-score.html – they are bloody sublime. There’s not many forwards about with control like that. Higuain is… Read more »
His movement for that Swansea chance is also world-class, how he arcs round his marker and times his run perfectly for Gnabry to slide it in to him. Beautiful. I could watch that all day.
Higuain is no better than Giroud. Higuain is just a bigger name who played for Real since he was 20, but now he’s no improvement on Giroud.
Not to mention all those clever back flicks he plays, his excellent awareness of players around him and his defending at corners. I’d like to see Arsene give Giroud a good run this season, I feel he can be fantastic. And I know I’d rather be cheering Giroud on then – gah – Suarez.
Saying Giroud or Higuain is disingenuous, Higuain coming means no Özil, due to R.M almost certainly refusing to sell 2 world class players to the same club in the same window, ergo the question is Higuain or Özil, and i am very happy to say we got the better.
I think the best is yet to come from him. Its only his fourth year in top flight football. Late bloomer.
Ballon d’Orable
Who care if Giroud Score as far as his barging assist and we are winning. I will settle for winning anytime.
When giroud has a tough time upfront and dosen’t look like scoring he is contributing in other areas like wining lot of areal duels and defending corners holding up the ball and invite players into play, but when higuain has a bad game upfront he is totaly missing and not contributing at all, that’s the deference netween the two and i would rather have giroud !
not to mention he is a tall body good in the air for defending corners
And he is handsome.
Giroud has been awesome for us in all sorts of ways, like holding play up, linking with midfield, etc. as well as scoring goals. And who the fuck cares if Ozil is the reason he scores more goals? That’s what great teams do and that is what we have got at the moment. My ONLY fear for HFB is that he get’s overplayed and knackered, which is why a CF in Jan would be great.
Off topic I know but I was looking at the MCFC “Blue Moon” fansite (yeah I know it’s weird but I went to Uni up there and have blue mates) and they have separate threads for each “serious” PL team. And their consensus seems to be that we are the biggest threat to them winning the PL, if not favourites. Not that I give flying one what Manc’s think but it is good to see we have them worried!
And it makes a nice change from the MUFC arrogance.
Giroud is becoming a superb all round player….goals, assists, link up play, strength, great runs etc. He is gonna be one of the very best if he keeps progressing at this rate especially with the great players he has around him. I want to point out that the pass for Ramsey’s goal on saturday was one of the most unselfish plays i’ve seen by a striker especially as it was on his left foot, every other striker would have gone for the shot, keep it up you handsome bastard.
Is mesut ozil related to the late Enzo Ferrari…….
No.
Ugh Manchester is a blue and red cash machine and I have no respect for either side for buying titles
P.s nice of manure to provide a large wc in the form of Old Toilet very public spirited of them
http://www.itv.com/sport/football/update/2013-10-01/head-to-head-olivier-giroud-v-gonzalo-higuain/
Not a lot statistically between Giroud and Higuain. Giroud edges it on stats just. Except for the stats, don’t know how important Higuain is to Napoli, but Giroud has been vital to our play this season. His hold up and link play is what the team is based around and he has been involved in the build up play of almost all our goals. Plus he has tirelessly battled for loose balls and defended from the front.
I like Giroud because he improves those around him with his link up play. I don’t see him as creating too many chances from solo brilliance, but if he creates chances for others that makes up for it IMO.
Really loving watching Arsenal play this season and how genuinely the players seem to support and enjoy playing with one another.
He is like a can opener for us.
In reality we play almost a 1-4-1-4
We have Giroud to open space for us and Flamini or Arteta to enforce behind.
Sandwiched in between are 4 midfield pickpockets who find gaps to exploit the other team.
Giroud is good at ushering them through if not picking a pocket or two himself.;)
His time is now. @27 with the world cup looming, he has a chance to feature as the main striker for France. His attitude has been amazing. He has been humble and constantly seeking to improve himself. Most commentators look stupid because they assume that players won’t improve. If we haven’t already seen it with first Walcott now Ramsey and Gibbs, they do. Wenger particularly has been outstanding at this sort of thing. Pires, Llungberg, Viera, Flamini. Not exactly setting the world on fire when they came. Henry, converted from a less than convincing winger (if with potential) Arteta, converted… Read more »
On a side note, with the wealth of midfield talent in stock at the moment (particularly as the injured start to trickle back into contention), have a feeling we will see Podolski up top.
How he may link with Ozil just behind could be extremely interesting.
Oh I forgot, TGSTEL is waiting on the wings.
You’re bound to improve when you have that sort of threat to your position in the team.