Olivier Giroud shows animal instinct to destroy Olympiakos with hat-trick
Frenchman was at the top of his game as he answered his critics by
underlining his worth to both Arsenal and his manager Arsène Wenger
The
curiosity about Olivier Giroud is that on a good day he can look like,
as Arsène Wenger chose to put it after one of his most bullish
performances, “an animal”. At full power he is the kind of beast that
throws his weight around and makes a big noise. On less-good days he can
morph into a noticeably more ponderous creature. Those are the displays
which prompted Thierry Henry to wonder not so long ago whether Arsenal could win the league with Giroud leading their line.
In Athens, when Arsenal needed boldness to triumph in an intimidating, pressurised environment, Giroud was in king-of-the-jungle mode. A hat-trick that bristled with intent eased Arsenal’s complicated path into the Champions League knock-out round. The pivotal moment, arguably, came early in the second half, when having opened the scoring, he turned an ankle with his full body weight adding a lot of stress to the situation. It was such an anxious moment for Wenger, who is already without so many attacking options and could ill afford to lose Giroud for even a minute with the tie finely balanced, never mind any longer.
So what happened next? Three weeks out? Three months? The script tilted beautifully for Arsenal as Giroud hauled himself up, ambled back into action, and went about the total destruction of Olympiakos’s resistance. His second goal was unerringly struck. His third, a penalty, full of confidence.
This competition this season has been an extraordinary experience for the French striker. It began ignominiously, with a foolish red card in Arsenal’s opening-day crumple at Dinamo Zagreb. That meant he was suspended for the second match day, a nightmare against Olympiakos at the Emirates which left the team on zero points and their big No12 entitled to feel a bit guilty.
He has made up for that superbly. Having scored home and away against Bayern Munich, his treble in Greece bought deliverance for his team.
Wenger has placed a lot of faith in Giroud since signing him from Montpellier in 2012. Apart from anything else, what the manager really admires is his resilience, his desire to respond when he endures rough periods. He won’t easily forget a humiliating set of misses in last season’s defeat at home to Monaco. But Wenger never doubted that Giroud would recover. “When a guy plays in division three in France at 20 and gets up to the national team there is some mental strength there,” he observed.
While the headlines will be Giroud’s, he will be the first to appreciate the team effort that saved Arsenal’s Champions League campaign. There was defensive excellence from Petr Cech, attentiveness from Laurent Koscielny, absolute control and an added threat going forward from Nacho Monreal, bustling energy from Aaron Ramsey, dangerous running and a fine assist from Joel Campbell, and of course, the leader of the orchestra – Mesut Özil.
Given the key personnel that were missing – Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sánchez would all have been positioned in key roles – the challenge for Arsenal to find the balance between defensive caution and attacking ambition was complex.
It took a while for them to overcome early nerves, but once the flickers of optimism turned into a flow, Arsenal constructed the result they deserved. It was a perfect night for the Arsenal manager, who values his run of consecutive qualifications – not just in terms of participation in the Champions League but also in the annual passage to the knockout stage. This result extended that sequence to 16 seasons in a row.
His overall Champions League run, 18 successive seasons, is a well of huge satisfaction and importance Wenger, right, likes to draw upon. When he is under scrutiny he mentions it often, and with feeling. He is fond of asking how many other clubs have a record to match? The answer, as he has no qualms about reminding anybody, is that there are some very elite names that have not managed to match Arsenal’s regularity in the competition. Not Barcelona. Not Bayern Munich. Not Milan. Not Manchester United. Not Juventus. Not Ajax. Only one, Real Madrid, has a better record in that respect. Of course, critics can disregard a statistic like that as a sort of European version of the infamous “fourth place trophy”, a mirage-like prize. What’s the point of clocking up the miles if you never get to your destination? What is the glory in qualification if you never win the trophy?
But to Wenger – particularly in reference to the decade when he felt the squad was underpowered as they dealt with the financial limits imposed by their stadium move from Highbury to the Emirates – those repeated appearances at Europe’s top table are regarded as an achievement in their own right.
The morale booster of this safe passage from the group stage is reward enough for now after an indisciplined start to this campaign. To claim this result without so many key personnel can only be helpful to the rest of the squad.
Arsenal had a lot of wrongs to put right in Athens with their slimline squad. Giroud, more than anyone, knew that and reacted in the strongest possible way.
In Athens, when Arsenal needed boldness to triumph in an intimidating, pressurised environment, Giroud was in king-of-the-jungle mode. A hat-trick that bristled with intent eased Arsenal’s complicated path into the Champions League knock-out round. The pivotal moment, arguably, came early in the second half, when having opened the scoring, he turned an ankle with his full body weight adding a lot of stress to the situation. It was such an anxious moment for Wenger, who is already without so many attacking options and could ill afford to lose Giroud for even a minute with the tie finely balanced, never mind any longer.
So what happened next? Three weeks out? Three months? The script tilted beautifully for Arsenal as Giroud hauled himself up, ambled back into action, and went about the total destruction of Olympiakos’s resistance. His second goal was unerringly struck. His third, a penalty, full of confidence.
This competition this season has been an extraordinary experience for the French striker. It began ignominiously, with a foolish red card in Arsenal’s opening-day crumple at Dinamo Zagreb. That meant he was suspended for the second match day, a nightmare against Olympiakos at the Emirates which left the team on zero points and their big No12 entitled to feel a bit guilty.
He has made up for that superbly. Having scored home and away against Bayern Munich, his treble in Greece bought deliverance for his team.
Wenger has placed a lot of faith in Giroud since signing him from Montpellier in 2012. Apart from anything else, what the manager really admires is his resilience, his desire to respond when he endures rough periods. He won’t easily forget a humiliating set of misses in last season’s defeat at home to Monaco. But Wenger never doubted that Giroud would recover. “When a guy plays in division three in France at 20 and gets up to the national team there is some mental strength there,” he observed.
While the headlines will be Giroud’s, he will be the first to appreciate the team effort that saved Arsenal’s Champions League campaign. There was defensive excellence from Petr Cech, attentiveness from Laurent Koscielny, absolute control and an added threat going forward from Nacho Monreal, bustling energy from Aaron Ramsey, dangerous running and a fine assist from Joel Campbell, and of course, the leader of the orchestra – Mesut Özil.
Given the key personnel that were missing – Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sánchez would all have been positioned in key roles – the challenge for Arsenal to find the balance between defensive caution and attacking ambition was complex.
It took a while for them to overcome early nerves, but once the flickers of optimism turned into a flow, Arsenal constructed the result they deserved. It was a perfect night for the Arsenal manager, who values his run of consecutive qualifications – not just in terms of participation in the Champions League but also in the annual passage to the knockout stage. This result extended that sequence to 16 seasons in a row.
His overall Champions League run, 18 successive seasons, is a well of huge satisfaction and importance Wenger, right, likes to draw upon. When he is under scrutiny he mentions it often, and with feeling. He is fond of asking how many other clubs have a record to match? The answer, as he has no qualms about reminding anybody, is that there are some very elite names that have not managed to match Arsenal’s regularity in the competition. Not Barcelona. Not Bayern Munich. Not Milan. Not Manchester United. Not Juventus. Not Ajax. Only one, Real Madrid, has a better record in that respect. Of course, critics can disregard a statistic like that as a sort of European version of the infamous “fourth place trophy”, a mirage-like prize. What’s the point of clocking up the miles if you never get to your destination? What is the glory in qualification if you never win the trophy?
But to Wenger – particularly in reference to the decade when he felt the squad was underpowered as they dealt with the financial limits imposed by their stadium move from Highbury to the Emirates – those repeated appearances at Europe’s top table are regarded as an achievement in their own right.
The morale booster of this safe passage from the group stage is reward enough for now after an indisciplined start to this campaign. To claim this result without so many key personnel can only be helpful to the rest of the squad.
Arsenal had a lot of wrongs to put right in Athens with their slimline squad. Giroud, more than anyone, knew that and reacted in the strongest possible way.
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