When the Arsenal team, to take on Bayern Munich, was announced at the Emirates, lots of eyebrows were raised.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger decided to keep top-scorer Oliver Giroud on the bench and started with French youngster Yaya Sanogo.
I would say that it’s pretty obvious that Wenger has decided this is the best way to discipline Giroud after the French international found himself making the wrong sort of headlines. Married Giroud seemingly spent the night with a model (not his wife) in the Arsenal team hotel on the eve of a Premier League match. The model in question took a pic of a half naked Giroud and that picture found its way into the newspapers.
Giroud took to twitter to publicly apologise to his wife, family, Wenger and his teammates.
Wenger has decided that this wasn’t enough and gave Sanogo the solo striking spot against Liverpool in the FA Cup this past weekend. The 21 year old did very well in his first start. So well that Wenger decided to continue with him for the game against Bayern.
To be fair Yaya didn’t do badly but the Paris native is still very raw. This was only his fourth appearance for the Arsenal first team. To play him up top against the European champions was too much of an ask. Maybe give the pacey frontman the last 20 minutes in such a match and he can stretch defences but the full 90? That’s a bit irresponsible.
With Giroud you have a finished article.
Yes he misses a few chances but his all round play is terrific. He is smart, his runs create gaps and space that players such as Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil can exploit. Oliver’s link up play is also fantastic and again that spawns chances for the attacking midfielders that play around him.
Seeing that Arsenal had dropped their top-scorer and were playing someone untested at this level would have given Munich a boost before a ball was kicked. Especially with fellow goal-threats Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott missing through injuries.
Wenger may say that his team were unlucky and what if Ozil had scored from the spot? Fact is he didn’t. Fact is that after Mikel Arteta (who missed the Bayern match through suspension), Giroud is Arsenal’s next best penalty kick taker. Ozil has now taken two for the Gunners, both in the Champions League and he’s missed them both. The Les Bleus forward has converted his two pens this term.
Now had Wenger bought a striker in January then he wouldn’t have had such a dilemma with this fixture. Everyone knew Arsenal were short of experienced striking personnel (Both Dimitar Berbatov and Solomon Kalou were available). Arsene decided to trust the forwards he had and that decision has came back to haunt the man from Alsace.
Even playing former Bayern man Lukas Podolski in the lone strikers roles would have been a better option in my opinion.
Don’t get me wrong even with Giroud, Podolski or a new frontman Arsenal would have still struggled to contain the Bavarian side but their experience could have just given the home side a bit more of an edge.
It is all very well having morals and principles but sometimes you have got to leave them at home. Arsene gambled on the biggest night of the season and he lost.
Monsieur Wenger has to try and forgive and forget Giroud for his scandalous exploits and hope Arsenal’s season doesn’t totally fall by the wayside.
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