If we look just below the top top top quality strikers, Giroud should be put at that level. Whether another player can do a better job is certainly subject to opinion and can be debated. However, over the past two seasons, slowly but surely, Giroud is changing the perception of people about him. Forget the always-moaners. Most Arsenal fans seem to wonder about Giroud and Sanchez playing together. Many hacks grudgingly talk about Sanchez playing with Giroud and earlier in the summer talked about a strike partner/cover for Giroud. Compare this with the view of Giroud by the general public and the press to two seasons ago, even last season.
I would argue that Giroud is an improvement on Judas for the team. During Judas’s best and final season with us, he scored 37 goals in all competitions. The next higher goal scorer was Walcott at 11 goals and then Arteta at 6. In the next season (2012/13), Walcott scored 21 goals, Giroud 17, Podolski 16, Cazorla 12. We also scored 10 more goals than when Judas was here. Last season our top scorers were Giroud with 22 goals, Ramsey with 16, Podolski with 12 and Ozil and Cazorla with 7 each. It is obvious that the goals are now shared across the forward line and the midfield, making it harder to neutralise us. However, also consider that Giroud did not have Walcott to play with, Ramsey was injured for months, and so was Podolski. Now look at the statistics again. When you have a star striker, the ball is attracted to him, but take him out of the game (either through shadowing or a la Bussaca) and you are suddenly looking at a team having to adjust. Giroud is perfect for Arsenal midfielders to run onto to his delicate, oh so soft passes that take out defenses. Our wide forwards benefit from Giroud suddenly pulling wide and taking one or two reluctant defenders with him. Giroud is a vital cog in the ever moving, ever shifting fluidity that is the Arsenal midfield and forward line.
If someone, says Giroud doesnt have pace or cannot dribble past three players like Suarez. Tell them, Suarez cannot win the ball with his back to goal with a defender kneeing him and no foul being given every single time. If they say give the ball to Suarez and he will score a goal. After the obligatory diving and biting jokes, tell them Giroud will win a physical duel without playing ugly, pass the ball perfectly to a wide forward or defender, then play a neat one two with the midfield and will make an assist of the season. Tell them Giroud will be there when at crunch time, you need somebody to do something for a goal, like against Reading, against Dortmund, against Bayern and most recently in the FA cup. Lastly, tell them to expect more screamers from Giroud now that he has got that first one away.
Here is to Giroud and co terrorising defenses this season!
By Sensational Arsenal @Madras_Periyar
Positively Arsenal 
Of course, all I’ve seen of Manolas was his performance at the World Cup and I wasn’t the only one whom he impressed. If Wenger does buy him I think I’ll be happy with his judgement, I always am, that’s why this is my preferred Arsenal blog.
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Hunter
How is that Manolas’s fault?
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And whats this about our fans turning hostile on bacary? Then again the average arsenal fan lost the plot ages ago….but still…thats shameful. I was watching arteta yesterday and i was wondering silently, dreaming….god if only we had got cesc back…can you imagine? Cesc jack aaron….ozil theo sanchez…magnificent..full nuclear. Different level.
Arsene allured to jack learning/becoming the pitbull in midfield a month or two ago i think. Jack kicking and winning balls cesc organising and aaron wrecking havoc….ahhh cruel fate….
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If you have character you dont go sign for those cunts… manolas left his boyhood club to go play for thieves and criminals. No respect for him or any of their players who ‘win’ stuff thanks to their president’s mafia….
You think manolas does not know what oly does behind the scenes..? Heh….
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Lol id rather we got….samba… ha!!!
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Muaha rednapp and carragher want jack to reach aaron style level/form so that he becomes the main man for england…you see???? They try to make him their own…..fuck them jack ..learn from ozil santi mikel and of course arsene..watch de rossi and old videos of souza effenberg
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It’s seems you and I expect the moral compass of an individual footballer to be higher than the Patriarch of Constantinople….
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No just arsenal/wenger to cut off the reationships with those arseholes…
They are doing ‘their’ things….we should not even acknowledge their existence as a football club.
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You saw what they did to fulham…… 15 m for mitroglou????? Lol…… he is not even worth 3…
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Liverpool target falcao…ahahahahahahaaaaa
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And now Hunter wants morality in his footballers ! So I take it Suarez has been put to bed?
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Suarez is a player who sees all these defenders and refs and media as obstacles to his life’s ambitions. Read a bit on suarez …where he has come from, what motivates him etc and then comment on morality all you want…dont read the sun and mail….or evra…hehe
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Manolas is not our footballer george…and i hope he never becomes one
As for suarez he is 100 times more moral than any hypocrite commenting negatively on him.
And i think you know that too….
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FFS
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One word
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SANCHEZ
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Brilliant signing fins. I like how he gets tackled but gets up and tries again. Reminds me of typical germans who try something, fuck it up, get disappointed, but then they try again and do it twice as good
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I never mentioned him fins… just replying to snaps… sorry
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Isn’t it nice to have a squad where the spirit is strong enough that Giroud was happy to rotate with Sanogo, given fitness and the upcoming game in Turkey?
Isn’t it nice to have had signings like the players we saw yesterday that have clearly added to that spirit (please refer to Tottenham for the alternative extreme)?
I really enjoyed the bit in the game where Alexis Sanchez decided to start beating up Bolasie. Perhaps because he was bored? Taking his lead from the fouling Chamack?Who knows? Started out as some barges, but quickly evolved into a healthy repetitive foul. No biting required. My kind of footballer.
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Biting never harmed anyone…. shawcross did… heh..de jong…taylor…etc…
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Yeah. Uruguay were fine.did you miss the bit (geddit!) in the comment above about team spirit?
Hunter. Please don’t mention the dodgy geezer who bites before transfers again (it’s a pattern I can’t help but notice). He’s gone. Never to come. Get over it!
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Chambers. Tell me your thoughts on Chambers.
Debuchy. The inability of the referee to use the vanishing spray (I hope that shit is biodegradable!)
The price of eggs. The colour of the sky. Anything.
Thanks!
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Team spirit is traditionaly fine. Wenger is a master. Are you suggesting a chap like luis would cause unrest? Arsene knows….even your beloved mikel wanted him badly….
Man are you blind or something…. i never mentioned him, lol, george did…
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Chambers was fantastic, very good and seems to have a good football influnce/education in relation to say the clowns evans jones cahill….
Debuchy i dont know… i miss bacary if were perfectly honest.
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double canister, August 16, 2014 at 11:34 am
Correct. I agree.
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As for biting to get a transfer it can stand as a theory mainly due to the timing of the incidents… but im certain it runs a lot deeper that. If you want we can analyse…i have researched a lot in order to comprehend his psychotic unconventional unsocial pitch behaviour. There is a reason for everything. However i sense you will start vomitting if we have this discussion so lets live and let live. You hate him, i adore him. End of the story. We can still be friends.
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Top article. Great win. Lovely weekend. And some interesting comments hehe.
Sun always feels brighter when Arsenal win. Just saw the highlights. Team spirit does indeed seem good.
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George, is the search button/function on archives actually working ? Im looking for something from ages ago but i press search and there is no response..
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I don’t know Hunter. I don’t understand such things.
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Yes… im searching and searching blog to blog…bit of a tyranny. Can we call nasa and tell them to fix it ?…
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Approved search terms only H
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Approved? …. no im just throwing phrases from memory but the machine aint cooperating with me.
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[search criteria] site:https://positivelyarsenal.com/
e.g.
arsene wenger site:arsenal.com
via google?
thats the only way I know how to search if that helps.
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Dennis bless sav from australia ….what a fuckin catch…
I immediately followed your example and bam!!! There it was. Thank you.
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Real lack of character and pace from the Southampton No.4 as Henderson bundled his way past him to set up the goal.
Or, maybe it was just technique.
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Heavens help us. Not Suarez again.
Never was, never been.
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Fins: Apart from that lazy tackle by Schneiderlin and Clyne losing his man, Southampton have been very committed. I think Pool, like everyone else, are quite surprised. This could easily be 2:0 or 1:1.
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No worries Hunter.
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1:1. What did I say Fins?
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Southampton have had the half-chances to win the game! Hope they are not punished for it.
Still a good team.
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I always liked Shane Long. Good buy by Koeman.
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Let’s go Southampton.
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Darn, Liverpool’s second was coming.
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everyone keep saying arsenal won ugly yesteerday. we had 76% possession. how is that ugly? we played well and were unlucky to fall behind. we came back level and snatched the win at the death. it is the most beautiful way to beat a team who started wasting the time from the first minute. the referee was also culpable and incompetent.
sanchez will get better with better understanding with the rest of the team. hope gibbs is not a long term absentee. his injury denied campbell of his premier league debut yesterday.
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Pedantic george. September 16, 2013 at 2.15
Since i started commenting on blogs i have come across many people who i both like and admire. People who despite me not having met them physically, i like to think of as real life friends. People i trust. Of all those people the most maligned and attacked by others is hunter13. It is ironic that out of all of us, he has been right about everything ALL of the time
BANG!
😉
I suggest we keep the doubting and questioning and cheap shots/snaps towards my comments at an absolute minimum.
It is indeed ironic……..
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Too bad that Hunter turned into a doomer.
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Should have kept your old script writer Hunter. Your new one is a bit of a pest.
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Clyne, Ward-Prowse and Wanyama were awesome. Schneiderlin would be an idiot if he went to a team which isn’t competing in the Champions League.
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Hunter the ranter sounds like any ogre who posts at Le Grove. The same lack of football sense, the same tired arguments and the same ability to fall over themselves to praise hyped players over their own.
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Yes gains you can go win champions leagues with djourou…good luck mate. Ill stick with kos and aaron. Now go play monopoly….
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