Tag Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal fans need to stop with the Giroud revisionism – his exit led to Aubameyang’s arrival

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Every time Olivier Giroud scored a goal for Chelsea, Arsenal Twitter goes into a meltdown in what is becoming one of the biggest re-writes of an Arsenal players history.

Giroud was never a bad player for Arsenal.

He was limited, he was never a great goal scorer, he relied on others to create and he would have long spells without scoring. But he was never a poor player.

Giroud has shown for both Arsenal and France, and to a lesser extent for Chelsea, that a side needs to get the right players around him to get the best out of him.

At Arsenal that was Alexis Sanchez. For France is was Antoine Griezmann and Chelsea it was Eden Hazard.

Giroud is at his best when he is not expected to be the man to get the goals.

His highest league tally for Arsenal was 16. He has just 17 league goals in 71 league games for Chelsea.

When France won the World Cup in 2018, Giroud failed to score a single goal.

But all this was OK as long as Sanchez, Hazard or Griezmann were contributing from out wide.

Giroud is one of the games greatest hold up players in modern times.

How often did we see Sanchez pop a short pass into him, Giroud ply a one touch lay-off and Sanchez goes through and scored?

Arsenal were at the dangerous best when we had Sanchez on the left, Theo Walcott on the right and Aaron Ramsey in behind Giroud.

All 3 were more than happy playing the ball into the big Frenchman, continuing their run and getting the ball back in a goal scoring position.

As for goals, Giroud was a master at getting i infront of his man for a new post knock in.

Giroud’s fault came when fans demanded more from him. When Sanchez or Hazard wasn’t scoring (and left).

Without a world class wide forward, Giroud was simply not as dangerous.

He is not the type of player that takes a game by the scruff of its next; wins it through his own individual brilliance.

And this led to frustrating criticism from the stands when goals began to dry up from out wide.

When Arsenal Giroud, no one was upset.

Some fans have attempted to revise history by claiming Giroud was replaced by Alexandre Lacazette. He wasn’t.

Lacazette was already at the club when Giroud left us in January 2018.

It was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that was his replacement.

The story goes Arsenal wanted Aubameyang, Dortmund wanted Michy Batshuayi and Chelsea just wanted a striker.

So the deal was in motion, with Giroud joining Chelsea, Batshuayi to Germany and Arsenal getting their man in Aubameyang.

If anyone does not think Arsenal got the best deal then they are deluded or agenda driven.

Since joining Arsenal, Aubameyang has 62 Premier League goals. Remember that Giroud figure from earlier? 17.

It was Aubameyang’s brilliance in the semi final, and repeated in the final, that saw Arsenal win the FA Cup in 2020. Giroud could not have scored the goals Auba did.

Imagine the outcry if we had kept Giroud instead of signing Auba; and the Gabonese striker joined Chelsea?

We would all be fuming.

Lacazette has come in for criticism for his goal droughts during his stay at Arsenal. But he has 45 Premier League goals to his name. Giroud in the same time (for Arsenal and Chelsea) has just 21.

Now a case could be made that Giroud would actually suit Arsenal now.

With Aubameyang on one side and Bukayo Saka or Nicholas Pepe on the other, Arsenal could do with someone like Giroud for them to play off.

Someone that they could play the ball into knowing they’d get it straight back. Someone who Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin could aim for with a cross when they hit the touchline.

But for Giroud to ply with Aubameyang, you’d need to ignore that fact that we had to sell Giroud to sign Aubameyang.

And with Lacazette already at the club, it would make no sense to have the 3 of them – Giroud, Lacazette and Aubameyang.

Now if it happened the other way – with Arsenal signing Auba in the summer and it being Lacazette involved into a January 3-way; I would kind of understand the debate. But it didn’t happen that way.

So really the debate is simple for Arsenal fans:

Arsenal were not wrong selling Giroud to Chelsea. Giroud has not improved since joining Chelsea. He is the same old player that will score 8 in 10 and then 1 in the next XI.

Let’s stop the revisionism over Giroud. Let’s stop pretending that Aubameyang is not 10 times the goal scorer.

Keenos

6 goals in 8 games – Is Aubameyang form really a “major problem”?

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In recent months, we have seen some really extreme views from Arsenal fans in what has been a rollercoaster of a season.

Some people have shown their true colours, sharing views based on RTs, likes and attention.

These usually take the form of sharing an extreme view that makes like sense, all because you are an attention seeker.

It is not only just the wannabe YouTubers and Twitter celebs doing this either.

These ones are who go viral, who we all know about. But others are doing the same. Extreme views for a bit of attention.

I read one view yesterday that sums it up:

Aubamayeng’s form is becoming a major problem…time to start playing Martinelli and bench Auba

I have decided not to post the actual tweet in the blog because I want to avoid a “pile on” and people abusing the Tweeter in question. We have no idea how fragile he or she is and it is common in these situations for people to post an extreme view for attention, and then play the victim when they get that attention.

Aubameyang has not had a great season. He struggled prior to the turn of the year with just 5 goals. Although this was highlighted by a bigger problem at Arsenal – that we were not creating enough chances.

His current run reads a lot better:

  • 6 goals in 8 games
  • 6 goals in 6 starts
  • 5 goals 5 Premier League games
  • 5 goals in 3 Premier League starts

If 6 goals in 9 games is “a major problem” then I do not know what the Tweeter is expecting? 10 goals in 8 games? 20?

Yes, Auba has had chances to score more – he could have grabbed himself a double against Benfica; but I am certainly not worried about his form.

Anyone that has followed Aubameyang’s career will know that he has a history of missing easy chances.

He is better when he does not have to think is a tag that has been given to many a world class striker in their time. And Aubameyang falls into the bracket.

What is the problem here? Is it that Arsenal fans need someone to constantly hate? And with Mesut Ozil now gone they are slowly moving onto Aubameyang.

Is it that they do not actually like Aubameyang – they detest a rich young man who likes fast cars, load clothes and hair cuts that would get you suspended in Primary School?

When you take into account that Aubameyang has been carrying some personal problems on his shoulders in the last few months, to say 6 goals in 8 games is “out of form” is just stupid. It is attention seeking.

And then they say that Martinelli should start is equally as ridiculous.

Have you forgotten about Alexandre Lacazette? Or do we not want him to play because he is also in poor form?

Lacazette had a nice little run around Christmas where he scored 5 goals in 4 games, but his current run is 1 goal in 9 games – although he only started 4 games.

So even if Auba was dropped due to his “bad form”, it would be Lacazette and not Martinelli that comes in for him.

This sort of Tweeter would probably be the first to say “we played Martinelli too much too soon at a young age and after a poor injury” if he played 5 games in a row and then picked up reoccurrence of his injury.

For some fans, Arsenal and Arsenal players will never win.

They will moan when a youngster is not picked; they will moan when he is not picked enough. They will moan when a player only scores 6 goals in 8 games. They just like to moan.

Negativity garners attention – TalkSport make a radio station out of it.

You constantly see people on Twitter and other social media platforms doing the same. Sharing extreme negative views for attention.

Ultimately, if you need to spend your time attention seeking on Twitter, you clearly have something key missing in the real world.

Keenos

Losing is never a positive result – although there might be positives

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One thing I hate is when I see fans say “at least it was only 1-0” as if losing by a single goal was a positive.

This mentality shows just how far we have fallen behind the rest.

Gone are the days we would go to Anfield, Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford or Maine Road expecting a win. Now we are satisfied with “not being thrashed”.

I understand that the hammerings we took on the road in those later years have left some fans scared. I was at many of those games. It was horrendous.

However if we are to return to the big time, we need to act like a big club. Get the mentality right.

Being happy that you did not get smashed on the road is a small club mentality. Leave that to the likes of West Ham, Burnley and Newcastle. We are The Arsenal. We should not be happy losing 1-0.

I felt Mikel Arteta got his line-up and game plan spot on.

A few questioned why he changed the centre backs from David Luiz and Gabriel to Rob Holding and Pablo Mari; and why Nicholas Pepe came in for Emile Smite Rowe.

The reasoning was a change in game plan.

When we are looking to dominate a game, to play in the opponents half, we need athletic centre backs who can play in a high line – Luiz and Gabriel.

Against Manchester City, Arteta’s game plan was to defend deep and hit them quick on the break.

It is a tactic which has since us beat Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man U under Arteta.

Holding and Mari are better options when defending deep than Luiz and Gabriel.

Likewise in the middle, if we were going for compact and deep, Mohamed Elneny was a better choice than Dani Ceballos. Extra defensive steel in the middle.

And if we are playing on the break, we want the pace of Pepe rather than the guile of Smith Rowe.

Arteta also got the substitutes spot on.

As we began to dominate the play half way through the second half, he bought on the players who operate better in tight spaces – Smith Rowe & Lacazette; sacrificing Pepe who needs space to run in to.

What Arteta could not legislate for was City scoring in the opening 90 seconds; and the manner of the goal.

A few pundits went over the top, going as far as saying “Sterling outjumped 2 centre backs”. He did not. He outjumped no one.

He found space between Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding.

Bellerin dropped back to follow the run of Bernardo Silva, but clearly did not communicate to Holding that Sterling was behind him and now unmarked.

The ball was floated over, Holding was unaware of the man behind him and that Bellerin was not on him, and Sterling rose unchallenged to score.

It is the run of Bernardo Silva that was clever – had he not made that move outside of Bellerin, Hector would have been tight to Sterling; challenging him in the air.

It is becoming clear what Arteta’s game plan is in these bigger games – defend deep and hit them on the break.

This can lead us to look untidy at the back whilst we play quick, risky passes to go from front to back as fast as possible to avoid City’s high press.

It worked in the FA Cup semi final and it nearly worked Sunday when Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney both finding space down the left hand side. The final ball was lacking however.

Manchester City will now run away with the league title.

18 wins in a row in all competitions, and just 6 goals conceded in that time. It is a truly incredible run.

We are moving forward under Arteta, but the mentality of fans needs to move forward with him.

Losing 1-0 should not be a positive. We need to begin going into these games expecting to win.

Up next we are back to the Europa League with a home game in Athens.

Keenos