For some reason this week saw a slew of reports saying that Olivier Giroud had signed a new deal with Arsenal, with some fairly hefty wage numbers throw in too.
This puzzled us a little here, because it had been in the news, although not officially announced. So, we asked some people who would know the question, and they confirmed to us that the deal is not something that happened this week, but during last season.
The four year contract keeps him at the club until 2018 – provided, of course, that we don’t sell him before it expires.
Since joining from Montpellier in 2012, Giroud has scored 58 goals for the club, and last season his goals per game ratio was significantly better than in his first two seasons – even with that end of season dry spell that saw him lose his place in the FA Cup final.
Last week the Frenchman spoke about rumours that the club were on the lookout for a new striker, saying, “If there is a new striker, it will be nice for all the team, because competition is good for everyone.”
Rumours this week have us linked with Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski – although our chances of signing the latter might be impacted by the fact we’re trying to offload his best mate Wojciech Szczesny to Roma.
That and the fact Bayern won’t sell him anyway.
if it happens it happens
It already happened.
Feo?
I think we only need a quality striker this season and we will have a real chance of winning the league or atleast seriously challengefor it.
We will win.
prove it.
I can prove it, but it’ll just take me about 8 months to gather the evidence.
Interesting that this didn’t come out at the time. Maybe it was when he was injured.
I am a fan, despite him being slow and one footed, he is different to the other options we have. I don’t think he is top top quality but he does know how the team plays and is likely to score goals. Also, big and strong, unlike a lot of our forward and midfield players. Don’t think he will improve much more though, this is likely to be his peak.
One thing I’ve noticed is that he isn’t nearly as slow as he used to be. It used to be so frustrating to watch the ball fizz past him sometimes but now he actually runs the channels and has some mobility!
BUT, he is a team player, unlike some other ‘strikers’. I want him in the Arsenal. If we get another striker all well and good, because competition keeps all on their toes and anyway we don’t need another 3 month interlude without a ‘striker’. I like Giroud, and believe he offers much to the team in his approach and attitude as a team player.
agree with everything, except the improvement thing. he came to Arsenal at 25, which is usually the peak for most players. Yes, strikers improve after that, but that’s probably more down to experience. After coming to Arsenal, Giroud has improved so much technically, and hasn’t stopped yet. Personally, i have given up trying to put an expiration date on his improvement, so to speak.
Yes, i am a fan.
That chart isn’t very helpful: both lines going down feels like a drop off…
Pop the line up that shows goals divided by games and you will see an improvement which is the story of Giroud at Arsenal.
Great point.
I think he can keep improving for a couple more years before he plateaus in his 30’s. He was a pretty cheap purchase so I’m not sure why he gets stick from many Arsenal fans. The team simply play better with him in it. Also, don’t forget his important contribution in our zone when clearing set pieces, etc.
…and put a “hair line” on and we are good to go!
Goals per 90 minutes in premier league – .42 in 2012/13, .47 in 2013/2014, .68 in 2014/2015. So big improvement – and if he had played the whole season and kept up that rate, implies a pretty healthy 26 goals.
Well played Blogsy. Almost had me going with that Lewandowski rumour.
So the papers spend so much time making stuff up that they miss actual news?
And then scurry to exclusively announce old news… Olds?
I am hiding publications so fast my newsnow feed looks like the arseblog front page… But with out the spurious ads
Despite the fact that it’s nearly 30 degrees in London, Ontario today, when I read “newsnow”, I actually thought it was “new snow”.
Good grief… How Canadian am I?
My brother lives in St. John’s NL and has seen measurable snow in every month of the calendar.
Depends: are you posting while eating poutine and drinking a double-double from Tim’s?
Oh and screw it I’d take Steve Bruce’s mush for that bod!
If we somehow managed to pull off the Lewandowski transfer then they may as well put our name on the Premier League trophy right now
Walcott/Ox Ozil Sanchez
Lewandowski
Just think about that for a second….
p.s get the tissues ready because it gets messy when you think about it
you could’ve typed Messi instead of messy to complete the terrible joke and comment.
People have down voted this, but lets not be silly, IF we pulled it off it would be the steal of the century. The other teams in the PL may as well give up and go home. Ideal player for us (or anyone for that matter).
Its just a mindless rumour sure, started by a click-baiting Spanish hack, picked up by the click-baiting vultures in the English press, but a guy can dream can’t he? CAN’T HE??
Although it doesn’t look like it that graph shows HFB performed really well last season, he nearly equalled his goal tally of the previous year while missing several games due to freak injury.
Indeed. Those who rush to point out that he’s never had a 20 goal season conveniently forget that he scored 15 league goals last year, finishing sixth in league scoring, while missing nearly half of the season. If he’d been fit the whole year you’d be looking at 25 goals easy. Or more.
He scored 14 and before he got injured, the only game which he played well at was against everton.
Who’s to say he would’ve gone on the scoring streak he did after he came back from injury.
He probably would’ve been the same as 13/14 season; start well, go on a drought and score a few at the end of the season.
Did not miss nearly half the season he played 27 out of 36 possible games.
Wishing him many more goal-laden seasons at The ARSENAL.
If he had pace and mobility he’d be great.
You’re not very chipper chippy’s chip.
I read the captions.
I read the caption
What….I loved reading captions
The man is not appreciated enough. I dont know whether it was Amy who wrote something along the lines that Giroud was a “machete amongst our Swiss army knives” but I found it quite apt. The man is, to my opinion, the one without a like-for-like replacement in the squad. His value is in his complimentary nature to our technically gifted midfielders and auxilliary forwards. Benzema might get us 4 more goals a season but it would be at Girouds unquantifiable contributions at set pieces (both offensively and defensively) and link up play. So unless we are getting a thirty-goals… Read more »
Well said! Hope this season goes well for him.
Benzema has better link up play than Giroud.
Well Benzema’s primary role in Madrid is to be a link up player and he drops alot deeper than Giroud do so claiming Giroud is a better link up player than Benzema is a bold statement.
Very bold one at that.
Benzema is not an out an out striker at Real Madrid, if anything his primary role is as a link up player which he performs admirably imo. He must be to keep starting for the Galacticos or they would just pay 100 mill and get someone better. But I reckon he could score alot more if he was given the role of a striker. In any case I dont think Giroud would get anywhere near Real Madrid’s starting 11 and to claim he is on the level of Benzema is a very bold statement imo. They played about the same… Read more »
Exactly!. No one in their right mind would say Giroud is better. The only ones who think so are the “hfb” fanboys who just don’t want to admit the truth.
This is a good set of stats and shows a lot of areas where benzema is better, but comparing absolute numers, as opposed to per minute, or at least per match, makes no sense. Per 90 mins, benzema is still better in key passes (1.33 vs 1.21) and significantly better in chances created (1.73 vs 1.36), but Giroud is actually quite a bit better in goals scored (0.68 vs 0.59). To my surprise, Giroud is actually taking more shots (3.39 vs 2.71), even though benzema at WC had averaged 6.20. Also, top teams in la liga score significantly more goals… Read more »
Precisely. There is endless crap written about Giroud (and our attack to a degree). If he’d had a full season 2014/15 he would have scored around 25 goals (at the rate he actually scored). Comparing him to other players is redundant as he has unique qualities. If he lacks pace, he has developed a deft touch – his hold up play is excellent, he meets hard hit low crosses with an exquisite flick to goal that is unmatched. Last season he increased his longer range shots. He offers another dynamic to the Arsenal attack, just as Sanchez has done. Further,… Read more »
90k a week is just about right I guess. No way the club would pay him 130k and not give walcott who is younger and has the homegrown and English thing going on a similar amount.
Hate to break it to you but as Alan said, Feo run around like a headless chicken. If he scores, he scores
Didn’t say anything about their ability (for what its worth, theo is a better finisher than giroud), I’m saying offering a 29 year old Giroud 130k a week would’ve been crazy.
Be cause? Why not??? Please do explain your logic…
Twitter has worked itself up into a froth about signing Benzema or Lewandowski but I’ve yet to see anything remotely reliable to suggest their clubs might be open to selling them, never mind that we could beat off their many suitors.
Still, it’s good to know the G-Man has penned a new deal. He’s a terrific striker and we’re lucky to have him.
Goals/game for Giroud has improved significantly, but he’s still not the one for the big games. I hope he does improve it further with some pretty interesting trends going on (approx)
From your stats:
2012-13 : 17 goals, 47 appearances ~a goal every three games
2013-14: 22 goals 53 appearances ~a goal every 2.5 games
2014-15: 19 goals 37 appearances ~a goal every two games
Going by the trend, if he scores a goal every 1.5 games (I hope he does), he’ll be the much needed “world class” striker.
He scored against Man City(twice), Liverpool, Man Utd and scored in the FA Cup final?
I read captions
Now please secure Ozil to a new contract. #YaGunnersYa
Re todays blog. In wenger we trust. What a feckin tough act to follow one day. You dont get more homegrown than charlie george, paddy rice, spider o’leary, nice 1 sammy or chippy.
That graph is really misleading..
It should start from zero for a start, will give a better perspective
I didn’t read that caption
Why the fuck would Bayern sell Lewandowski to us?
I’m a straight guy but wow that picture of our very hfb!
“Captions”…… ARE VERY IMPORTANT!…. Blogs! 🙂
Giroud is a perfectly okay striker, happy to have him in the squad.
I really hope the reported 130k a week is wrong though, he’s worth nothing near that.
I dont like Giroud. You have the whole cheating thing where he tried to lie his way out rather than man up. And this time he says another striker is a good thing which we all know is his PR department talking because last time he said he did not want Arsenal to sign another striker. Then you have his constant whining to the referee every time he gets a little bullied, why cant he just roll up his sleeves and fight back. He is bigger than most after all and should put himself in respect. However he has improved… Read more »
Go and check what’s drogba’s and rvp’s average per season.
You mean the last 3 seasons seeing that Giroud has only played for 3 seasons.
Both have scored more than 20 in the league. So i don’t understand why you’d even want to compare.
he’s the french alan smith. Big, left footed, great link up play and underappreciated. He needs to be rotated better, when he is full of beans he scores regularly but too many games without a break and he loses his edge.
I actually like the look of our striker options. Traditional big man, traditional little man and a modern mixture of the two.