Won Over 50% Aerial Duels, Why Arsenal Will Be A Different Side When This Beast Striker Returns

Arsenal fans might be a little flustered with their current season but things are getting slightly better for the Gunners, apart from Alexis Sanchez starting off with a bang, there really hasn’t been much to cheer for Arsenal except for that hat trick by Danny Welbeck in the UEFA Champions league.

Speaking of strikers, Olivier Giroud could be back in contention to start for Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion on the 29th of November, after being out for almost 3 months due to injury; this will provide Arsene Wenger with a different threat up front in case he needs to mix it up against West Brom.

Yaya Sonogo hasn’t been the player Arsenal thought he would be, he is young and needs more time to develop rather than being thrown into the deep end and starting for Arsenal, with Giroud hopefully coming back earlier than expected, he could help Arsenal push up into a top 4 position in the Premier League.

The French finisher

The difference between Welbeck and Giroud is the fact that Giroud is a better finisher, Giroud in his first season at the Emirates scored 16 goals in 36 games for the Gunners at an average of 0.44 goals per game in the Premier League, and Welbeck scored 9 goals in 25 games at a rate of 0.36 goals per game. Giroud’s goal scoring had improved from his first season at Arsenal where he scored 11 goals in 34 games. Giroud is a classical center forward who loves holding up the ball, winning aerial battles, and being a fox in the box inside the penalty box. He also has that physical ‘beast’ factor in him too, which most of his fellow teammates lack.

He only played 2 games this season before injury hit him hard and Arsenal have missed him, Giroud might not be the tireless runner that Welbeck provides but he is a strong player, especially in the air. Giroud won a massive 3.83 aerial duels for the Gunners last season while Welbeck at Manchester United only won 0.40 aerial duels per match.

That statistic alone is something to take in, Giroud is a player who will try to get into the box and will try to win balls in the air, even though the Arsenal blue print for scoring a goal is not based on constantly crossing into the box.

In fact if we dig deeper, he has not only been involved in more aerial duels than the other striker at Arsenal but he has also won over 50% of all aerial duels while Danny Welbeck has only won 35% of all aerial duels last season.(all stats provided by Squawka)

Giroud and Welbeck’s goals per game ratio is pretty similar but Giroud is a much bigger threat in the air when compared to Welbeck, while Welbeck might run and cover more distance to close down other defenders, the need for a fox in the box is provided by Giroud and if they keep on feeding him more crosses, he can score more goals for the Gunners.