Match Report | Match highlights | Wenger’s thoughts | Credits: Mirror
It’s no secret, let alone a well-hidden one, that Olivier Giroud has had very little game time this season. The reasons for that are variedly obvious – his injuries inconveniently coinciding with the success of Alexis Sanchez, the noticeable increase in offensive output and an unfavourable popular fan opinion. They were all factors that led to a healthy first-half of the season, and Arsene Wenger – unwilling that he is to touch a ming vase kept in positions closest to being perfect – opted against shuffling the pack, leaving Giroud to applaud from the peripheries.
What goes around comes around, and that was clear when injury to Theo Walcott opened the door for Giroud. And it would be fair to say, after a goal rate of six from four starts that would even make Lionel Messi proud, that he has ran through that door like his life depended on it.
In an ordinary, routine-esque 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, Olivier Giroud produced an extraordinary moment of pure wizardry that we will remember the game by. It might be what we remember the season by, and one day it will probably be how we remember the Frenchman by.
In the excitement of that goal, people tend to forget what a brilliant move it was. It started when Lucas Perez slid in for a half-ball, something that seems to be the welcome output of tough love by Gabriel Paulista. I think it was Bellerin who initiated the move, passing it to Giroud.
Olivier foreshadowed his flicked finish by backheeling it to Granit Xhaka, who one-twod it to Alex Iwobi. With Crystal Palace caught on their heels – Iwobi did one of the things Iwobi does best, charging at the defender before playing a perfectly weighted pass to Alexis Sanchez.
And then the goal. Ah, the goal. It’s ironic that it took a somewhat sub-par cross, considering the quality of the build-up before that. But you know what they say about the greatest things stemming from accidents, and the fact of the matter is that Giroud’s goal would not have happened had Sanchez not delivered the cross a bit behind him. But he did, and here we are.
I find myself struggling to find any superlatives that may not already have been taken. Needless to say, I will not entertain any claims that that goal was a freak occurrence. Granted, there is always an element of luck with regards to hitting the sweet spot at the sweetest of times, but when you look at the goal over and over again (as I’m sure many already have) you can see what happened was what he tried for. The implication that he oafed his way into the box and was the beneficiary of the football hitting him in the best possible accidental way is fundamental nonsense.
What I find it hard to stand is the laissez-faire mentality of relegating Giroud to a Nicklas Bendtner or a Yaya Sanogo figure. I get that he is capable of the frustrating miss – his failure to convert the easiest of tap-ins prior proved that. However, when you consider the quantity and quality of goals he has scored over the years, it’s impossible to deny he has been very, very prolific.
Yes, stats don’t tell the whole story, but even on the pitch, he provides a sizeable contribution that cannot be scoffed at. What he offers in the air augments his neat flicks and tricks on the ground. He’s the best target man we have, possibly the best target man in the Premier League, and even if he’s pushing 30, there are no signs of him descending from his maxima.
And in a way, even if the conspiracy theorists are right and it was a fluke, who cares? Yesterday, we probably just saw one of the top-three goals Arsenal will score this season. If you cannot bring it to yourself to enjoy its pure aesthesis, perhaps this sport is not something you can enjoy anymore.
Goals like those are what bonds football fanbases together, even fanbases as fractious as ours. They are what makes the beautiful game beautiful, and they are what people remember seasons and players by. Let’s hope that after all the social media exaggerations and “Mikki or Giroud” debates rest, the beauty of the goal remains untarnished.
Happy New Year everyone!
-Santi [Follow me on Twitter @ArsenalBlogz ]
Comments