Chelsea, the reigning Premier League champions, were a big disappointment in two previous transfer windows where several of their transfer targets rejected the Blues and opted to join their league counterparts.
There has been an alleged rift between boss Antonio Conte and the management regarding the club’s transfer policy as the board largely ignored the Italian’s preferred options and wrapped up players of their own.
The London heavyweights were in the market for an out and out goalscorer and the rumours of Peter Crouch, Andy Carroll and Ashley Barnes left the supporters baffled and kept them in complete shock. However, chasing Edin Dzeko was a more ambitious move but the talks broke down as they failed to come to an agreement with AS Roma for their marksman.
A deal, meanwhile, was struck with Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud late in the January transfer window which found the fans some solace due to the Frenchman’s vast Premier League experience for rivals Arsenal.
The high-profile signing of Spain’s Alvaro Morata did not pay off due to his lack of form and injury concerns of late. Michy Batshuayi, the young Belgian, could not convince the gaffer to earn a regular place as he was looking for a more experienced name to sort out their attacking conundrum.
Giroud made his first appearance in a 4-1 defeat to Watford where he made little impact coming from the bench but provided an assist in his first start for the new club against West Brom and helped his side to be back to winning ways following a thumping 3-0 victory.
The 31-year-old Frenchman opened his account last night in the FA Cup fifth round tie at Stamford Bridge where the Blues registered a comprehensive 4-0 win against Championship strugglers Hull City.
He assisted both of Willian’s goals before finding the back of the net from new recruit Emerson’s delivery who also marked his full debut with an incredible assist since joining the Blues from Roma. Giroud was integral in Pedro’s goal too, where he did extremely well to hold the ball up and lay it into Cesc Fabregas’ path who quickly found his fellow countryman Pedro to slot home with a decent finish.
It was a display of sheer dominance from the ex-Gunners hitman who was struggling to have enough game-time under Arsene Wenger and was left second fiddle to new signing Alexandre Lacazette.
The arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang furthered jeopardised his place and the player’s move to Chelsea finally took place when Borussia Dortmund replaced Aubameyang with Chelsea’s Batshuayi whose egress paved the way for Olivier Giroud’s £18m transfer.
Giroud was mostly accurate with his passing and completed 16 out of 18 passes he played last night that includes two assists and one pre-assist. He showed his physical and aerial supremacy by winning duels and also completed one successful dribble in order to trouble the Hull backline furthermore.
He was finally taken off at around 70th-minute mark amid huge applauds from the fans following his sensational display and the player found himself ‘relieved‘ after scoring his maiden goal for his new employers.
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