Told you so: Giroud is here and will score 14 goals next season « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

Well finally the word is out. What we have been saying a few months now is official. Giroud has joined Arsenal.

The 1,92m tall French striker and international comes over from the French champion Montpellier.

He was their top scorer in their last campaign that brought them the title after a fierce battle with PSG. So he knows what it’s like to fight against the big money teams. And he knows how to beat them apparently.

So how do I know he will score 14 goals in his first Arsenal season? Well because he always scores 14 goals in his first season at a new club. And then in the next season he goes one step further and scored 24 or 25 goals.

Just look at his stats. When he joined Istres in the 2007/2008 season he scored 14 goals. But then he went to Tours so Istres couldn’t find out how his second season would be.

In Tours he scored 14 goals in his first season. And in the next season he went further and scored 24 goals. I think he was chosen best player in the Ligue 2 that year if my memory is correct.

After Tours he went to Montpellier in the season 2010/2011 and guess what he scored 14 goals in his first season. And in his second season he went on to score 25 goals and won the title with them.

So if he keeps this up he will score 14 league goals this season in his adaptation year. Because that is what it will be. He will have to adapt to the PL.

We must keep this in mind because others like Pires also had a difficult start at Arsenal at first. The first year has also been difficult at times for Gervinho (and certainly after the African nations cup defeat) but at the end I thought he was coming good again. It will be a big year for Gervinho. Will he have made the step up or not? We will see this season.

For Olivier Giroud we will have to see how his adaptation will work out. Let us not judge too soon on him. Chamakh came in as a hurricane at first but couldn’t keep it up and totally disappeared. So in a way I wouldn’t be that disappointed if Giroud needs a bit of time to settle in.

If I can compare Giroud with another striker I always have to think of Dzeko. One of the luxury bench warmers at Manchester City. He is also tall, he is a good header and a left footer. I really do think they are very similar in the way they are built and the way they play.

Dzeko has had his ups and downs and maybe in another team would have got more time and more goals. But at City with all the strikers they have it is hard to get playing time.

And the same will be maybe the fact at Arsenal. Because if you look at the current strikers we have at our disposal for now we have: Van Persie – Podolski – Giroud – Walcott – Oxlade-Chamberlain (all at the Euro’s this summer) – Gervinho (Ivory Coast international).  6 internationals and 2 of them top scorers in their league and 3 of them in their club.

Podolski is one with a great distance strike, Giroud is a strong header and a poacher, Van Persie can do it all, Walcott is as fast as lightning, Oxlade-Chamberlain is just as fast and has more technical ability and Gervinho can be dazzling at times with his runs from the flanks. If only he would start to score this season.

And then we still have players on our books like Chamakh, Bendtner, Arshavin…. I do think there will not be enough room for all of them. And we also have to look at Afobe who is the young gun knocking at the door.

We now have 3 left footed strikers and 3 right footed strikers. And some of them can play on both flanks. Podolski is not slow: nor are Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo. So we will have speed enough in the team in attack.

If Wenger can mix them and make them play together we do have a great attack. Can’t wait for the season to start.

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