Arsene Wenger has dropped a big hint that he won’t be bringing in a new striker this summer as he believes Olivier Giroud can hit the 25-goal mark this season.
The 27-year-old Frenchman came on against Everton to header in a late equaliser and seal a dramatic 2-2 draw.
Giroud, who still has two-years left to run on his existing deal at the Emirates, has had a topsy-turvy time since his arrival from Montpellier two-years ago. He managed to net just 17 goals in 47 total appearances in his debut season, and did slightly better the following season, scoring 22 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions.
But despite his decent goal ratio last season, Giroud’s performances were fairly inconsistent and only found the back of the net two times (home to Everton) against the top five. Moreover, his displays were under-fire after his off-field antics became public, which led to rumours of the forward returning to France.
This season so far, he hasn’t been up to par either, missing several chances in games against CrystalPalace and Besiktas last week.
However, Wenger is pleased with Giroud’s progress since his arrival and insists he has enough firepower in his squad to last the campaign:
‘He scored 16 [in the Premier League last year] and he’s very convincing.
‘You never have to set any limitations for any player. For me, he’s improving every year and don’t rule it out that he scores 25.’
He added:
‘We have Sanogo who will be an important asset, we have Giroud, we have Lukas Podolski, we have Joel Campbell who can play centre forward. We have Alexis and Walcott coming back. Let’s not forget that.’
Yes we do have options upfront that we cannot argue, but we do lack that killer striker – one that can score regularly and hit that 25-30 goal mark.
Looking at the stats, Giroud IS improving every year, but I don’t think he is the man to fire us to Premier League glory. 25 goals is a big ask and in order to achieve this, Giroud will have to be on form and pull out impressive performances consistently.
wenger shud stop dreaming giroud is not a striker… Com on he just luks like a giant pole of electrical tree… We shud be going 4 people lyk cavani…falcao even welbeck is bettr thn geroud… Wenger wake up myb ur stl dreming of top 4 trophy
Wenger is living in dreamland if he thinks giroud and sonogo r top rated strikers he should quit now