Olivier Giroud says hitting a century of goals for Arsenal in the closing weeks of the season would represent a ‘not bad’ achievement for five years work.
The Frenchman, who signed a contract extension in January, needs to score six more times to hit the landmark this campaign having so far averaged 0.43 goals every match since signing from Montpellier as a relative unknown.
Speaking about the milestone as part of an exceptionally weird interview that had a heavy focus on spirituality and his star sign, Giroud also admitted that losing the momentum he built up at the turn of the year following his ‘scorpion kick’ goal has been frustrating.
“I too, believed in an incredible 2017,” he told L’Equipe [translated by Get French Football News].
“Already the match before [the scorpion kick] against West Brom, I scored the decisive goal, and there, I was beginning to get a series under my belt. What followed resembled more my situation in the autumn.
“At the time, the team was going well, and I, I came back late from the Euros and had to wait to win a place. Then I started to have slight physical problems. Obviously, it is frustrating.
“My aim is to score my 100th goal this season for Arsenal. I have 94. That would give me an average of 20 goals a season with Arsenal. Not bad, eh?”
Giroud also touched on the media attention the squad is under in light of their recent poor form.
He continued: “For five years we have had these sorts of sensations and we always finished in the “big four”. The team does not feel that pressure, which you describe from the outside. The coach regularly tells us to ignore what is going on around us and to leave him to deal with the critics saying, ‘Play, I will deal with the rest.'”
Over the weekend, Giroud scored twice for France, in the process becoming one of his country’s top 10 goalscorers of all-time.
Video: Giroud’s goal for France. pic.twitter.com/KrWTTMOBRp #Arsenal
— Gurjit (@GurjitAFC) March 25, 2017
Olivier Giroud’s second goal this evening. #afc pic.twitter.com/rldQb2fTYn
— TikiTakaConnor (@TikiTakaConnor) March 25, 2017
The striker’s brace in the 3-1 win over Luxembourg took him to 23 goals for Les Bleus. He’s now just three goals behind Sylvain Wiltord and only needs eight more to overtake legends like Youri Djorkaeff, Just Fontaine, Jean-Pierre Papin and Zinedine Zidane. Thierry Henry tops the list with 51 goals.
Love Giroud. Really hope he will find more success here at Arsenal. Although he divides opinion, I think he gets a lot of stick just cuz the manager didn’t buy a more complete forward which is not his fault. Whenever he plays, he gives a 100% and he has a decent scoring record despite Arsenal not playing to his strengths most of the time.
Enhh… I like the guy a lot, but for me he’s an impact sub. He slows us down too much. I don’t know why we’ve stopped playing Alexis up top, but I hope we go back to it consistently. I won’t pick a team, I’ll leave that to our still manager – but if you ask me the question – Alexis or Giroud? It’s not a question….
I do hope we can keep him AS an impact sub though. He’s just not a starter…
I think you’ve kind of nailed it really, he isn’t what Arsenal need in order to play the way Arsene wants them to play. His whole Arsenal career has been a square peg in a round hole sort of thing. The season when he was top scorer in Ligue 1 playing for Montpellier, a lot of the goals he scored for them were from balls fizzed in from the channels and that’s not something that we really tend to do a lot of at Arsenal – we obviously tend to play through the lines so when you take that into… Read more »
Really underrated player…hope he hits the century and a lot more.
‘Play, I will deal with the rest.’ Personally I admire the boss for taking all the flak, but the players now really have to step up and reward that faith in them.
There is much to still admire in Wenger. Sadly people have let their emotions get the better of themselves and forgotten what they have in the quest for what they don’t.
Well said sir
I agree. The players have let him down, and the club, badly, especially the West Brom game. However, Wenger is accountable for the team’s results. He is one of the best managers in the game–and I mean that sincerely–but if we find a better alternative at the end of the season, then we should explore that option. If that isn’t the case, we’re lucky to have an incumbent as good as him.
giroud is not as bad as some people say. certainly he is not world class either . giroud does a good job really even though he divides opinion. the problem at arsenal is that when rvp left he created a high benchmark for the future strikers and giroud for all his talent will never reach that . and wengers reluctance to buy a striker to share the load with giroud is not helping him at all . its been years and wenger has not bought a single striker(welbeck was supposed to be a stop gap option and unfortunately constantly injured)… Read more »
If we had good crossers he’d score more. I believe he had scored a lot of his goals with his head at his old club. We seem to cross it more when Giroud isnt on the pinch
We might not be great at it but I don’t think we have bad crossers. But players ARE very reluctant to cross… Through balls and dribbles and one-twos have become our calling card. Giroud is a bit static so it’s hard to solely depend on him but someone playing off him with an eye of goal would excellent. For every three passes back to Mustafi if we could whip one in we would be a much better team.
It is interesting how you point out “with Giroud we’ll never win the league”, while this site has also covered on the relation between league top scorers and league winners, starting from the 2009/10 season if I am not mistaken. As a target man, Giroud needs to be high up front and he needs good deliveries too. By overcrowding the midfield and play 3 CB’s(which Chelsea utilises well enough this season, as well as other clubs), you basically kill the target man role, which crosses out many so-called-world-class-strikers with the same trait as Giroud. (P.S: every teams DO need a… Read more »
while its true that there might or might not be a relation between league top scorers and league winners . but what the article missed was that you atleast need to have a striker with consitent goal record to challenge the title. with consitent goal record i mean atleast a 20 goal striker , regardless of whether he topped the goalscoring chart or not. giroud in his life has never scored 20 goals in premier league in a single season . the most he scored in a single season was last seasons when he scored just 16 goals. for comparison… Read more »
Giroud s been decent but pretty sure it’s 0.43 goals every match and not the other way round
43.0 goals every match.
340 goals every match, surely?
Ha! You’re quite correct. We’ve updated.
Giroud scored that scorpion goal which will now be the only highlight of Arsenal’s amazing season we are having this year!
Sarcasm aside he is good but not great. Seems to play better when he has to fight for his place
We’ve been spoiled a bit by having some of the league’s best strikers at the club. In the last 20 years we’ve had Ian Wright (a natural poacher with two feet), Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Robin Van Persie (could have been a legend if not for injuries), and Giroud is undoubtedly not at that level. Which isn’t to say he’s bad, not at all, but they were exceptional. Very few teams have had such talent up front over the same period as we had.
Welbeck – Giroud – Walcott
Ozil
Elneny – xhaka
Monreal Koscielny Mustafi Bellerin
What say ye?
A lot of people suggesting he is not great, but 20 goals a season suggests he is pretty damn useful. Can’t be too many players who have scored more goals than him over the last five years.
We could really do with you right now. You can start by getting a hat trick against Man City!
No gunner fan doesn’t want this guy to reach his ton, but a regular starter…. maybe not
Giroud is a quality player, no doubt in my mind. Not world class, but a top quality player. He manages to score so many goals in a team that doesn’t play to his strengths, how many players do that in reality? Look at what happened to Carrol and Bentekers when they joined Liverpool, their careers were put on ice. Giroud brings people into the game and score more than his fair share given our style of play. I would love to see Arsenal have a plan B of switch to a 4 5 1 formation, overload the wings and put… Read more »
give him the service in the box he will deliver i cant think of any goals he has scored outside the box very under rated player and his stats prove his worth to the team
Olivier joined as the top goalscorer from the winners of Ligue 1, not sure he really classes as unknown any more than signing Vardy would have done this season
All is forgiven Giroud, for the last 5yrs i have clowned on him for not being good enough. I now realise that you were never the problem.
‘relative unknown’…
According to soccerbase, Giroud has a *slightly* higher goals/game average in the PL than Alexis (.57 to .54), yet half the fanbase doesn’t rate him as a striker while almost everyone considers Alexis a “generational talent.” Feels a bit like a case of confirmation bias.
It’s absolutely the case. Giroud has one of the highest goals per minutes played ratio of any striker in the Wenger era. Last season, I mentioned he put in more goals then in Walcott’s best season for us. Yet Theo is seen as this maverick that could perhaps turn things around for the club should he hit stride. The other thing about Giroud is that is tally has been improving every season. This season he has been affected with less opportunities but still has a chance to rack up the goals (and we will need it) When you combine the… Read more »
stats can be misleading if you dont understand the context. giroud has one of the best goals per game ration , its true . but when you look at why does that happen you would understand how good giroud is . for instance giroud is arguably the best impact player in the league. how many times he came on this season after 70-80 minute and scored goals . so when he is a sub it only takes 15-20 minute to score a goal and he has scored that plenty. so we have a striker who only need 20 minute to… Read more »
Alexis played out wide for most of the last 2 seasons. Giroud has been first choice most of the time. Alexis as a CF has eclipsed Giroud’s best league tally already with 8 games left. Compare their stats as CF and you’ll see why we think Giroud is not good enough
A far more effective player than many deem him (much like Metersecker and Flamini were) Giroud scores goals but he needs to play regularly to get the positioning right. He has an excellent touch for a big man and is adept at playing in our second line. Pace is frankly moot since we have plenty of those assets in the second attacking line just behind and Giroud is also excellent at holding the ball and playing off of. We see all these cries for Welbeck over Giroud, I like Danny but blatantly, he isn’t any more effective considering minimal impact… Read more »
Fans talk about Giroud slowing down our attack, having Alexis up top and so on. Personally i believe Giroud is a high quality efficient striker and the best lone striker Arsenal has currently. Theo, Welbeck are poor up front on their own and Alexis tend to drift wide left in any case leaving the box empty. Alexis came to the club and was top scorer playing on the wings so what is the point removing a PROVEN goal scorer up top to put another PROVEN goal scorer but then decreasing your ability to score from all over the pitch. The… Read more »
He’s one of the better near post finishers we’ve had recently, deft flick ins or headers. He just needs service and the right game to be effective – counter attacking goals aren’t his forte. Useful player no doubt
Hope he gets the 6 or more this season to hit the century mark for Arsenal.
Giroud gets a bad rap, but he’s been useful and more than decent for Arsenal. How many of his goals have been game winners? A fair few I bet.
I don’t believe that Lazacotte will be an upgrade on Giroud.