OLIVIER Giroud has signed.

Henry scored 26 goals in his first season. Talking such shit and getting his facts wrong won't help the criticism. Drogba also played less games.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...claims-1872734

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But Giroud, who also has 11 assists, claimed: “I replaced Van Persie and when you arrive at a big club like that, they are very demanding towards you. The criticism has not always been deserved, but they push you on. Seventeen goals and 11 assists - that is better than Henry and Drogba in their first seasons. This is the quality I have. I have got better with this team and this staff - it is another level. And I want to continue to improve.”

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I suppose the Drogba comparison is valid as he came to the league at a similar age, however while he wasn't always prolific (only managed 30+ in 2 seasons, otherwise averaged less than 20 goals) he was a tank who almost always delivered when Chelsea needed him most.

We need to replace him , or keep him as a squad player, he needs 10 good chances before scoring one goal.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

He hasn't been criticised for "only" scoring 17 times, he's been criticised because he's an immobile, snail paced lump.

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Yep, for what it's worth I don't think he's a bad player, just not good enough as a starting striker for a club chasing honours, let alone top 4 club.

He would make a nice Plan B/Sub, but that's about as far as it goes for me.

We can only hope that he gets better because Wenger won't be shifting him anywhere. He has the potential to be better than what he is now. He usually works hard but we'll need more from him next season.

I think there are a few issues here. For a start, Giroud did not 'replace' Van Persie. Arsenal's problem is that we didn't replace him. Instead Wenger indulged his fetish for MF's (and here I include Podolski who drops deeper into MF rather than being a front man) - looking for Podolski and Carzola to make up RVP's goals.

To this extent, on goals scored, the exercise has worked. But the facts are, firstly that even with RVP we were a striker short - and therefore then, like now, we were supremely vulnerable to injury or loss of form. Secondly, none of the 3 'replacements' has the genius that RVP had to unlock defences - and therefore we have to look past mere goals scored. Patently, some of the points we have dropped are because Giroud, and the players at the base of the triangle behind him lack the ability to create goals out of nothing on their own.

Sperz have a similar problem with being short striker-wise (even though on paper they still have one more than us). The difference is that they have Bale. We don't have an equivalent. Its when you look at Manure (4 first team strikers including RVP), and Citeh (3 top class strikers (and arguably they have suffered from being a striker short) - it beggars belief that we only have one to call on.

2 further problems have let to the Giroud situation. The first is Wenger's obsession with trying to create top class players rather than buying them. The second is our system - again seemingly due to Wengers midfielder fetish -that dispenses with wingers - and thus pretty much denies us any hope of ever scoring from crosses. I guarantee that had Giroud been front man for Manure he would be being celebrated as one of the leagues big successes of this season.

So no, Giroud - in our system and with our personnel - is not a true 'go to' man. But in terms of blame allocation for this I find it hard to look past Wenger.

Giroud and Pod were RVP's replacements believe it or not.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

Giroud and Pod were RVP's replacements believe it or not.

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They might have been in Wenger's mind. To an objective observer, they were clearly not!

He believes he was

http://www.goal.com/en/news/article?contentId=3958282

Giroud replacing RvP? Is this a language thing? Surely he knows how ridiculous this sounds?