I’m not one to be heavily critical of Arsenal players, because I like to consider the good old of saying “form is temporary but class is permanent” and I genuinely believe we have a lot of very talented players at Arsenal, if not a few world class ones. However, one player that has been very frustrating in recent weeks is French international striker Olivier Giroud.
On his day Giroud can be a very good striker and his form earlier on in the season led many people, fans and pundits alike, to believe that we could have found a possible replacement for the departed Robin Van Persie. However the Frenchman’s form has since dipped and rather dramatically to the extent where we must hope the goals from midfield continue to fly in. It hasn’t quite got to the stage where we could suggest ‘world’s greatest’ Nicklas Bendtner would be a better option in front of goal, but one man who could possibly replace Giroud is our German powerhouse Lukas Podolski.
Podolski, who has been out with injury since August, came on as a substitute against West Ham yesterday, picking up a goal and an assist for Walcott’s header. The fans were left impressed and it goes to show how much we have missed him even though we are still currently top of the league. Podolski’s return will give us another option in attack as well as in improving the general stability and depth of this strong Arsenal team. But in particular I think he’s given us a great alternative to Giroud especially in his poor run of form, because Podolski showed not how his playing style and ability can single-handedly change a game but also his immense talent makes him a fantastic threat to have on the pitch.
The only concern would be that last year Wenger experienced the same issue with Giroud and chose to replace the Frenchman with the German. However Podolski too failed to impress as a central striker, so perhaps this is something we should remain concerned about. With Walcott too not really the central striker type despite his best wishes, and Bendtner and Sanogo simply not being good enough, I think a slightly better approach around this issue would be for Wenger to invest in January but I guess there are far more likely things to happen than that.
Perhaps the home game coming up against Cardiff would be a good chance to start Podolski as centre forward again. What do you think Gooners?
