On Monday, a few papers ran stories about Olivier Giroud having an injury scare.
“Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud suffers injury scare with France”
Daily Mail
“OUCH! Arsenal injury scare as Olivier Giroud appears to suffer KO in France training ahead of Wales friendly”
The Sun
“Arsenal suffer injury scare ahead of Tottenham derby as Olivier Giroud picks up knock during France training”
The Mirror
The stories were based on a couple of pictures available via Getty Images. They showed Olivier Giroud, currently on international duty, holding his leg. That was it.
No attempt was made in any of the stories to figure out what had actually happened or whether it was serious. The authors just decided to speculate wildly knowing an ‘injury scare’ story would probably rack up a few hits on a quiet news day.
Surprise, surprise…Giroud is fine. He was spotted training today ahead of France’s game with Wales.
So there we go. Panic over. Not that there was ever any real panic in the first place.
Giroud is dead…dead sexy!
Drop dead sexxy
Yes – if he was injured, I am sure we would’ve missed the 10 minute cameo he gets at the end of every game now, where he tends to spend most of those 10 minutes lightly jogging around because he can’t really be arsed to come off the bench and only play for 10 minutes in games that are either already won, or already lost. Must be a tough season for him mentally. Its probably pretty hard to swallow getting the sympathy minutes in the Premier League considering he scored bags of goals last year, and now his only real… Read more »
Yes mate, Lacca and Giroud up top, Sanchez in the Marc Overmars role, Jack in the centre with Ozil and Rambo out on the right ala Ray Parlour. God I miss 4 4 2. Actually maybe I just miss our players knowing the fucking system and their roles in that system.
They now the system. The only thing missing to make current system work is a Matic/Kanté/Fernandinho kind of player – destroyer with passing skills Xhaka has only the latter-Coq only the former and Ramsey is a 10. Maybe Jack is the answer
*know – knobhead
I’m not suggesting a 442, since this current 343 system is proving that we aren’t any good with just the 2 in midfield. I was thinking more along the lines of 3511; so you have your 3 centre backs. Then the 5 across the midfield. Bellerin and the Tank providing the width as the wing backs. You have a midfield 3 to control the game; Granit and Aaron lying deep. Granit to sit. Aaron give the right to get up and back. Then Mesut in his best position the number 10. Then you have Giroud in front of Mesut –… Read more »
Xhaka isn’t good enough and never will be. He’s like a 1980’s footballer, no athleticism, clumsy, rash and reckless. Everyone says he’s a good passer but I don’t see any assists or chances created. Even Alex Song notched up assists from his role. His marking is atrocious, he gives the ball away in terrible positions, even his famous long distance shot has been disastrous. Let’s just accept that he’s another of this crop of footballers Wenger has signed on the basis of a stat generating programme, chuck said computer programme out and go back to signing young, athletic, hungry professionals… Read more »
So wrong Xhaka at his best is the most creative defence midfielders in the country. One of Aw’s best buys. As for Spurs, do you really think they are so much better than us? When they start winning trophies like we have than we can start praising them.
I don’t want my DM’s to be creative, not that I believe Xhaka is. I want them to intimidate, bully and generally kill the oppositions flow. Ozil creates, Ramsey creates, Sanchez creates. Fernandinho doesn’t, Matic doesn’t, Kante doesn’t.
Well therein lies the problem. You expect Xhaka to be a DM in the mould of Fernandinho/Matic/Kante, which just isn’t what he does. We were just tricked into thinking that of him because of all the talk around Kante and “destroyers” when we bought him. The problem isn’t Xhaka’s ability, it’s how he’s being used, and left stranded by Ramsey (who is under instructions to camp out in the opposition 6-yard box). Watch him in a 3-man midfield for Swissland where he can be a deep lying playmaker and he’s blistering. Now I’m not saying we don’t need a solid… Read more »
I think out of our current crop of central midfielders he is the best option we have – who are the others? Coquelin Elneny Wilshere (who is never fit, so you can’t really rely on him across a whole 38 game Premier League season) Cazorla (again he’s not fit, and potentially might never kick a ball again) Maitland-Niles (is still a very young player who is still learning) I haven’t mentioned Ramsey because he is obviously starting alongside Granit. But out of all of those players above, I think Xhaka is the better option. And its not like we are… Read more »
Mom! Dad! Giroud’s dead!
That’s right, DEAD serious about going to Itchy and Scratchy Land
give this person the 10 thousand dollary doos!
also, whomever downvoted comment this is a monster.
No!!!!
We want a drama!!!!!!!!!
So Giroud’s not injured and Lacazette doesn’t have any complaints about being left on the bench. Sort of beginning to get that whole ‘no news is good news’ thing.
Almost like bad news is no news for one thing or another.
In other news, scientists didn’t discover a new species today and no heads of state have been assassinated. Now over to Jim with all the weather that we definitely won’t be seeing tomorrow.
Interlull is truly upon us. I am glad this barrel-scraping-for-anything-newsworthy week doesn’t come back till March. We’ll settle in to real football week in week out.
But no no no no this was an excellent news story.
Giroud is not dead
Ok, since we’re into this “fascinating interlull,” I would like to raise two questions there probably wouldn’t be room for when Premier League is back at full throttle: 1) In the long run, is Arsenal’s fanbase going to shrink? And can it potentially seriously hurt the club (not only financially)? To provide further explanation to this question: we, international (outside of UK) fans, do not have a way of becoming fans of specific PL club in a way locals do – that means, being born in an environment where you are often (not always) “destined” to become a fan of… Read more »
Yes and yes
I think the refereeing debate should be about “consistency” in decision making when it comes to identical or similar situations in games. I see many experts talking about decisions in isolation yet nobody draws parallels to similar calls made for the same situation. I strongly believe that FA have a refereeing policy towards some teams. Just some observations made by me- Arsenal- Decisions do NOT go our way in the EPL and UCL but decisions go our way in domestic cups. Chelsea- I’ve seen a trend over the last 6 years where for 1 season they are given free pass… Read more »
It seems to me like the FA have a strategy to keep the league competitive. That’s why we have gone from
1. Only Man united to
2. Arsenal, United, Liverpool to
3.Arsenal, United, Chelsea, City to
4. The big 6- big 8
Leicester winning the league sums it all up.
Now I really hope he scores a hatrick!!
That’s the world we live in today with so much crap being spewed online without any attempt to actually find the truth, it’s all about click bait.
Goal.com should be called ClickBait.com
That site just keeps spitting out useless articles.
Then i have to hire another Assassin.
His leg will live on forever in our hearts. #PrayForGiroudsLeg