Why Chelsea Should Sign Olivier Giroud From Arsenal
Chelsea’s summer has been a mixed bag so far. The Premier League champions were expected to go big in the transfer market, as they return to the UEFA Champions League for the coming season, but have had to face some disappointments so far.
There has been plenty of good news for the fans, with the arrival of Antonio Rudiger from AS Roma and Tiemoue Bakayoko from AS Monaco, but at the same time they had to miss out on primary targets like Alex Sandro and Romelu Lukaku, and it is the latter that will have hurt them the most.
Lukaku was widely expected to make a return to the Stamford Bridge in the summer, following his refusal to sign a new contract at Everton. However, Manchester United made a late swoop for the Belgian international, signing him up for £75million. This has left the Blues in somewhat of a precarious position.
After manager Antonio Conte told star striker Diego Costa that he wasn’t part of his plans for the future, the club are left with just Michy Batshuayi as their striking option and Lukaku was the man tipped to fill in the Spaniard’s boots. But with that train leaving the station, Chelsea have turned their attention towards other options.
However, one name, from close to home, that they should consider is Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud. The 30-year old Frenchman finds himself at crossroads at the Emirates, following the club’s record-fee capture of compatriot Alexandre Lacazette earlier this month. The Gunners have been strongly linked with a move for Celtic’s young sensation Moussa Dembele, and his arrival would make things even more complicated for Giroud.
The France international arrived at the Emirates back in 2012, after he finished as the Ligue1 top-scorer at Montpellier. Despite all the naysayers and critics, he has been a consistent goal-scorer for the North London club.
Giroud, till date, has appeared 164 times in the Premier League for Arsene Wenger’s side and has bagged 69 goals and 27 assists so far. He is directly involved in a goal every 113 minutes for the club in the English top-flight, which is quite impressive, considering that many a time he isn’t a regular in the playing XI.
Last season too, he lost his place to Alexis Sanchez at the fulcrum of the attack, but he still came up with the goods, scoring 16 times and setting up 7 more in 40 games (1780 minutes) in all competitions, which means he contributed to a goal every 77.4 minutes – once again a very impressive tally.
The 30-year old may not be the fastest of the strikers, but more than makes up for it with his all-round abilities. One of the best headers of the ball in the Premier League, Giroud also possesses great technical ability and is an exquisite finisher. He puts his big and sturdy physical frame to good use at the top to hold the ball up and bring his teammates into play.
Giroud can play accurate through balls in behind the defence and can do neat little layoffs in and around the box as well, highlighting that he can link up very well with the rest of his attacking partners. He is not someone who will solely rely on crosses being bombarded into the box to score goals. He even works very hard for his team when not in possession and has a great work-rate as well, fitting in very well with Antonio Conte’s scheme of things.
Any new forward that will be coming in is very likely to take time to adjust to the rigours of the English game. And despite having spent a year at the club, Batshuayi hasn’t played enough to be relied upon as the primary striker for the club. This is where Giroud could turn out to be extremely useful.
He might be a left-field choice for Chelsea, but the club also should take note of the fact that he is a proven Premier League player and has been scoring goals regularly at this level for a number of years now. Minus the ground speed, he will bring in almost the same attributes to the team that Costa does to the table.
Chelsea tried to sign him from Montpellier back in 2012, but the player chose to move to Arsenal back then. Maybe the time is right for the two of them to team up ahead of the next season.