Arsenal need a new striker, but it’s not because Olivier Giroud is terrible.
It’s because Theo Walcott has failed to be the ying to Giroud’s yang.
Despite a frustrating and lengthy goal drought in the middle of the 2015-16 campaign, the much maligned Giroud scored 26 goals and had eight assists in all competitions – a decent return for a striker, unpopular though he is.
It was in this goal drought where Arsenal needed a player to step into the fray and score goals.
With Danny Welbeck missing through injury and Joel Campbell struggling to convince the manager of his qualities, you’d think you could rely on your longest serving player.
Walcott scored seven and assisted twice in 2015-16 and having lost the trust of Arsene Wenger, spent a lot of time on the bench even when he was fit.
It’s a bit ridiculous a player in his 10th year at a professional club still doesn’t have a settled position, but that is the situation Walcott finds himself in.
Right wing, left wing or striker – nothing seems to work for the speedster who is no longer even the fastest player at Arsenal. That mantle has passed to Héctor Bellerín.
In a decade at Arsenal, Walcott has scored 85 goals in 214 starts and 130 substitute appearances – Giroud has 82 from 142/45 since 2012.
Perhaps, we could wait for Walcott to blossom into the Thierry Henry-type player we all bayed for in a Robin Van Persiesque coming of age…
Not likely.
What Giroud needs is a player who will score 20 goals with him each year, to slot in when the hunk’s chips are down. Someone who can sub on or start in place of the big man when he’s huffing and puffing and not blowing any balls into the back of any nets.
Walcott’s scored more than 20 goals in a season once in his career, in 2012-2013, since then his tally has been 6, 7 and 9. It’s possible he’ll do it again, but with Wenger looking to buy a striker this summer – having already made bids for Alexandre Lacazette and Jamie Vardy – it’s unlikely Walcott will be given another chance prove himself as a goal-scorer.
Giroud is a 20-goal-a-year striker who has only improved since he started at Arsenal, each year scoring more goals than the last. Walcott has been in purgatory, neither improving nor getting worse for ten years.
Haters be damned, when Giroud is hot, on or off the field, he is hot.
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