Arsenal’s goalscoring hero Olivier Giroud says the team’s second half performance was a worry, but that today was all about taking three points back to North London.
It was a game of two halves as Arsenal bossed the first period with the Frenchman scoring twice in 4 minutes, before a spirited second half from the home side, an a 49th minute goal, made the rest of the game uncomfortable viewing.
It was clear some of the players were feeling the effects of the midweek game against Monaco but in the end Giroud’s goals were enough for the win.
“I think we started well, on the front foot,” he said aftewards. “We scored twice, and put our own pace on the game.
“Afterwards, the second half was the problem. We didn’t play anymore, I don’t know why. We were talking on the pitch, to try and get a third goal and to fix it, but they put us under pressure.
“It was a tough game, but still we got the three points and that’s really important ahead of the international break.”
Today’s goals bring Giroud’s tally for the season to 17, not bad when you consider he missed three months with a broken leg.
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Well done Giroud! I’m a big fan of our WORLD CLASS striker! He brings other people into play so well.
A great 3 point day!
Too right, a huge Arsenal cliche but definitely a game we wouldn’t have won 2 or 3 seasons ago. Well done boys. I’m not bothered about performance, I’ll take 8 more of them till the end of the season.
MASSIVE THREE POINTS!!! #COYG
I’m all about the points, bout the points, no trouble.
Only Giroud & Coquelin looked on it today. Santi looked absolutely shattered. Please rotate better Mr Wenger.
Great tackles and defensive work from Coquelin today but he gave away the ball a lot today, all of which could have cost us. A draw tomorrow between Liverpool and Utd and a win at the Emirates vs pool and top 4 is pretty much guaranteed.
Our Coq was firm in the first half, but went limp in the second. I think I counted him sloppily give away the ball in dangerous positions at least 3 times, plus he was culpable on the goal for not tracking the obvious run. He’s been great for us lately in general but his second half today was pretty shocking. I’m sure it doesn’t help having someone as knackered as Cazorla playing next to you, though.
Let’s not forget Gabriel and Koscielny too who were excellent I thought. And Ospina had a good game
Its scary to think how many goals he would have scored if he stayed fit throughout the season. He has 13 goals in Pl and 17 overall already. Could have easily got 30 goals.
Giroud got 13 goals in 19 games now in the league, So If form persisted throughout the season he would be on target for 26 league goals which is allmost on par with Van Persies best season with us which I believe was 28 league goals? Henry had 30 in his best season. But 26 goals in a season I would dare say is within the world class bracket. But interestingly I saw a stat which said that Giroud is now the most efficient striker in the league with 1 goal every 105 minutes played. Next follows Kane then Costa… Read more »
So happy to have Giroud in the team. Contributes so much to what we do offensively. Looks like he really enjoys being a Gunner, too. His goal celebrations always aknowledge teammates and the fans.
Top top quality
So pleased with Goalivier’s performance, I hate to see him criticised by the use of a vague term like ‘world class’.
Giroud is never compared to world class strikers because he simply is not clinical enough. However his run of form now says otherwise. Like rambo last season, hes slowly finding the composure to finish pretty consistently. may it never end!
I think you’re right. Also scoring against the likes of Chelsea where he has previously missed decisive chances will help
HFB highly ‘ffective bloke.
Handsome French Beast?
And how vital will these points be? He surprised a lot of defenders recently with his toughness and finesse. Rare combination. Get the feeling that if we found this guy a pure striker to play with, OG would absolutely slay.
In our formation though, where would this pure striker play??
Agree wit the rest though. The guy was always strong but he really seems to be a beast now. Hold up play is very good
Our HFB did it again by scoring a brace today. Kudos! I hope Giroud gets his wish of scoring a hat trick some time soon!
Giroud had a good game today. He disappeared in the second half(alongside everyone bar ospina and bosscienly).
He seems to have hit a rich vein of form and long may it continue.
Hope welbeck can also hit the same vein of form and start scoring goals…its frustrating to watch him make wrong decisions time and time again.
Couldn’t watch the game but glad to see that we have won. 3 more points. Giroud proving his worth eh..With Totts and Saints also winning Top 4 is getting tighter. We need to keep up the good work. Lets win at least 5-6 more games to be safe. COYG!
same people commenting about how great he is we’re probably the same ones who talked utter vitriol towards him prior to this season (and even after the first leg against monaco). at least own up to it. simply put, our attack has time and again shown we are shit without him starting. sanchez saved us while he was out, thank the heavens for that. for years now our attack has been built on a classic CF, he’s more than doing his job post-RVP.
I thought he was crap before last season but luckily i never slagged him off on the internet 🙂
Because he was average start of the season.
He DID have a shit game against monaco.
He NEVER use to score against big teams last season.
He wasn’t a top striker.
However, he has improved this season.
its simple: he plays well, i’ll praise him. He plays shit, i’ll RIGHTLY criticize him.
I won’t say “giroud is the best striker in the league” or “he’s the top 5 best strikers in the world” because he has “nice hair” or whatever it is you fanboys like him for.
So you don’t agree that he has nice hair then?
Of course he does. And yes he is very handsome, but that has nothing to do with how good he is on the pitch. Same people probably slagged Becks off for being nothing more than a pretty boy.
LOL… As if your opinions matter. They don’t.
And yours do right?? Maybe you think giroud’ll give you a chunk of his hair for you to sniff all day??
You are one of the rudest individuals I have ever encountered.
You’re one the MOST “polite” I’ve ever come across. So polite that anyone with an opinion different to yours is a “troll”.
Who is RVP? Giroud has, over his 2 and a half years at Arsenal, became a truly superb striker, and one who contributes so much to our attacking play. We really did miss him badly when he was injured, his contribution since he came back has been phenomenal. Love the HFB!!
Giroud has won more silverware with us than rvp:)
We didnt play well second half but what made it worse was every single rebound from a tackle went against us so a bit of bad luck involved too i think.
Giroud: a genuine striker with talent. As opposed to Kane who needs the ball to land at his feet with no one between him and the net or a typical Rose dive for a penalty.
he’s a sp*rs player and for that reason I don’t like him, but don’t your bias get in the way of acknowledging how incredible this kid is doing. he came out of nowhere and has shown remarkable poise in front of the net. a few players on our squad could learn a thing or two from him. with that said, and if he keeps it up beyond this season, he’ll be sold within 2 years time.
Exactly…i call comments like that “fanboyism”. Only an idiot would deny Kane’s talent. Hate him for being at spuds, but don’t make stupid facts up.
Fact 1: he was lucky the ball came to him with an empty net in front of him for the first goal. Fact 2 : he miskicked his 2nd goal. Fact 3: Rose dives to get a penalty. Well taken penalty I admit. However Kane gets slobbered on by the media while Giroud gets raked over the coals for one bad performance against Monaco. Sooner or later his luck will run out and the articles will read “what’s wrong with Kane?”
So Kane isn’t a genuine talent on the basis of one game despite him being the top scorer in the league and having scored 26 goals?
Rival fans can say the same of giroud too…at the end of the day, both are in great form.
you don’t have to deny kane’s potential/talent. Just say SPUDS IS A SHIT TEAM THAT’LL FOREVER BE IN OUR SHADOWS”…thats all.
Adebayor?
Great 3 points today…my worry is everyone could see santi was dead on his feet but Wenger did not substitute him till 70mins it could’ve cost us Le coq was awesome in the 1st half but he was clearly not fit to continue after his collision and nose bleed he was no where as influential after that ….he gave the ball away at least 3 times that could’ve cost us…I don’t blame him I blame our bench and game management.. Glad about the 3 points but a team with a bit more quality would’ve have cost us points…Newcastle could’ve won… Read more »
2nd time coq got nose injury because of giroud lol XD
lol, maybe its a conspiracy?……we now have a very hard coq who is effectively stopping them from having a free run at us like before…..solution?…….the only weakness he seems to have is his nose, …target this and you might make him softer and have some success?
Newcastle upped their level in the second half and everyone of the boys struggled due to the fatigue and controlling the ball became almost impossible due to the howling of the Tynes. They didn’t let Coquelin settle or anyone else in our midfield, particularly. Break couldn’t have come at a better time
It’s all about the points
Very shaky second half. It could have gone either way. Hope to see us stamp a bit more authority and kill the game off. I had a feeling they would come at us second half, not sure why we never seem to learn to stay on our toes. Also do not like the idea of soaking up pressure with throwing more defensive assets on. I still think we would be served better (particularly with newcastle bombing forward) with another pacy attacking option (not suggesting any names) to switch out from the tired legs that started. Sitting deep and soaking in… Read more »
Ramsey was not getting it done today. nothing seemed on for him
Good win and the top three certainly looking exact at least look at the magpies ways of exposing arsenal fc teams towards defencr ospina was on form but his kicking out caused alot of magpie counters coyg giroud