So this is no surprising mega signing, its been on the cards for the last 2 or possibly 3 weeks (I'm losing track of the time without the usual football). After England spectacularly went out of the Euro's we need something to cheer us up. Maybe this will be it.
What do I know about Giroud? Well quite frankly not a lot. He spent this season with surprise Ligue 1 winners Montpellier playing a total of 40 games and scoring an impressive 24 goals in league and cup. Standing at nearly 6'3 hes a giant of striker and has won the highest percentage of aerial balls this is the highest in all 5 of the top leagues this season. I'm sure I've done what plenty of Arsenal fans have this morning which is as always gone onto youtube and searched for videos of him.
From what I can tell and must say I have never seen him play so don't hold me to this. He's certainly not the quickest but he looks to me like a poacher with a fair few of his goals coming from following the ball in (something all good strikers should do). That said his technique looks superb and although he lacks pace his timing seems to be impeccable. He certainly looks like he can finish.
His height is obvious but unlike other he seems to be able to actually head the ball, I'm always amazed by the sheer number of tall strikers who either can't head or can't jump but this doesn't seem to be a problem for him.
OK now that I've gone over the bits that make everyone very excited, in the name of being fair I need to make some points. Firstly unless Wenger knows something we don't I can't see how we're going to be able to play 4-3-3 without leaving a high profile player out. We have 4 international players to fit into 3 places: RVP, Walcott, Podolski and now Giroud. Assuming he plays that formation and I know its good to have depth but will any of those players be happy playing every other game, I'm sure the 2 lads won't and Walcott certainly isn't going to be. RVP unquestionably has to play.
What about 4-4-2? OK so Walcott and Podolski on the wing, Giroud and RVP upfront. So then who loses out in the midfield: Wilshere whose our creative talent? Arteta who we just signed? Song who sits infront of the defence? Rosicky who just signed a new deal? that's without mentioning Ramsey. I genuinely can't see how it will work without shifting some players but I wouldn't want to lose any of those.
Also the last international striker we signed from the French league who was good in the air turned out to be Chamakh so...more to come soon.
It's that morning again where we all attempt to digest our fixtures for next season. Not that what any of us say is (normally) ever right. This morning Arsenal fans all over twitter have been almost wailing about how we're gonna finish 10th and how everyone is going to leave. Firstly at the end of the day you have to play everybody twice, secondly if we are going to be the club that we all want us to be, we shouldn't fear these fixtures we should look at every game assuming we can win.
I'll give you a little run down of our first 10 games: Sunderland (H), Stoke (A), Liverpool (A), Southampton (H), Manchester City (A), Chelsea (H), West Ham (A), Norwich (A), QPR (H), Manchester United (A). I'll admit on the face of it, it doesn't look great but like I said you have to play everyone, everywhere once. I quite fancied to have Liverpool early on as I think they're gonna be a bit shaky at the start of the season. If we come out of those games with 23/24pts then we'll be laughing. I may be a bit optimistic there but why not?
Other dates to pen into your diaries are November 17th when we play the first North London Derby of the season at home. January 12th and 19th we have Man City at home and then Chelsea away respectively. March 2nd is the reverse of the derby at Shite Hart Lane. Manchester United at home is 27th April and we finish the season off with a tricky trip to Newcastle.
We aren't the only team to have a dodgy run though. Man United have an away game after every CL game including ones against Chelsea and Man City I think (don't hold me to that!).
Please remember that these games will be subject to change for Sky and now bizarrely BT, so game dates and KO times will fluctuate throughout the season. Finally the Carling Cup is now known as the Capital One Cup which looks very cheap in my opinion.
I'm sure there's more transfer ramble to come in the coming weeks, so check back soon.
Well its been an age since I last posted mainly because nothing at all is going on really because of the Euros. I could go into some post about how RVP had a shocker and SZCZ got sent off and how Podolski was but it seems rather irrelavent. So instead I thought I'd do a post that was quite popular last year. Who should go?
Well coincidentally the first person that I'm going to talk about apparent is 'keen' to leave Arsenal to join an Italian team and that defender is Johan Djourou. I have never really rated him to be honest, he always seems clumbersome and doesn't really know where he should be. His clearances also leave something to be desired. I can understand that Djourou wants to play football more regularly, hes still young-ish at 25 and he wants to move to something new. The reported 10m Euros seems a bit high to me not that I'm complaining, also I think Djourou's aim of a top 5 Italian team may be a bit ambitious.
Another defender who I think we could see depart is Squillaci, at 31 this could be his last move and he is well out of favour with manager and fans alike. Yes he's had injury problems and his early performances were OK but he's gone rapidly downhill. The only issue with him is that his age may inhibit possible deals. I can't see him leaving however. I think we need some new younger defenders to step in when needed.
It terms of current midfielders I'm happy but would like to see a few more players brought in to give us something a bit different, I think we've been a bit too predictable this season. That said with Denilsons loan coming to an end I think he's one we could really do with seeing the back of, I never rated him and don't think a one year loan spell will have made much difference.
Talking of players returning from loans, in the striking department we have the worlds greatest striker returning and I'm sure we'd all be happy to see him depart. A permanent deal would be best for all involved. Chamakh is one that I think is the most obvious to leave and I think he will, he's been so poor recently and I think a fresh start would be best for him. I can't see Park leaving for some reason despite having little impact mainly because he hasn't been played.
So that's a little shortlist of people who I think we could see leaving. I'll be back soon with players who I'd like to see (mainly those who have been rumoured), till then take care.
