Opinion: Should Arsenal Sell Olivier Giroud To Bring In This Real Madrid Superstar?

The season of madness is about to begin, just after the end of the football season comes the time when everybody takes out a wish-list expecting to sign every player they ever dreamt off, we are obviously talking about the papers and fans who seem to link Lionel Messi to their favourite club and how Cristiano Ronaldo will come to Manchester United this time for sure.

Arsenal seem to be in the mix of it all with some rumours being spread that they are ready to launch a huge £35 million bid for Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema but that would only take place if they sell one of their strikers. The only attacker who could be called a proper striker in the Arsenal team is Olivier Giroud, the Frenchman had a season which didn’t have a lot of highs but did spend some time away from the team due to injuries. It would make sense for Arsenal to sign another top quality striker but should they really do it as a replacement for Giroud?

Two French strikers are better than one

Giroud might have spent a bit of time on the treatment table but that didn’t hurt his goals to games ratio, sure it isn’t on the level of Messi’s or Ronaldo’s but then again whose is? In just 35 games for Arsenal this season, Giroud has scored 18 goals that is a goal every other game. If you consider the record he had in the last two seasons, Giroud scored 17 goals in 47 games and then 22 goals in 51 games last season. This season has been an improvement for the Frenchman and had he stayed fit, he probably would have scored a few more goals for Arsenal.

Giroud does show decent movement as well when it comes to playing with the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. The fact that Arsenal have so many talented wingers and attackers, they don’t really need a striker who has to work the channels, instead he has to be at the right place at the right time and Giroud does provide that for the Gunners more often than not.

While Giroud isn’t the most gifted in terms of pace, that doesn’t really affect his style of play at Arsenal, the only thing that did pop out this season for him was his injury record and some of his more glaring misses, especially the ones in the game against Monaco. If Giroud actually works on his finishing little more, he could become a great force if the ball is properly fed to him constantly by the Arsenal attackers.

It isn’t that Karim Benzema would not help the team become better, for all the stats and the goals, he is a better striker than Giroud and has a better game than Giroud and Arsenal should try to get the signature of the Real Madrid striker. If the Gunners can get the pair of them playing together, they could have a real shot at winning the title next season, Giroud and Benzema would be a lethal duo and the other Frenchman who does all the planning for Arsenal, Arsene Wenger knows it, it just depends on if the signing of Benzema is a more urgent requirement than that of a world-class central defender for Arsenal.