The scapegoat of 28 million pounds sterling from Arsenal becomes the new Giroud and it is not Gyokerres

Although this is almost not the case, it was an excellent weekend for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.

Before even kicking a ball, they received a massive opportunity in the race for the title of the Premier League while Crystal Palace lacked surprising winners against Liverpool.

Then, while they also abandoned points for the second consecutive week, the Gunners left St James’ Park thanks to a late winner from Gabriel Magalhães.

It was a daring and very impressive performance of Arsenal, and in which almost everyone played well – including a player who could be considered their new Olivier Giroud, and no, we are not talking about Viktor Gyokerres.

Olivier Giroud’s arsenal career

Arsenal signed Giroud on the French side Montpellier in the summer of 2012, at the rear of a season during which he scored 25 goals and provided 12 assists in 42 games to help them win Ligue 1.

The Frenchman did not succeed in the sweetest departures of the capital, because when he finished his first season in red and white with a total of 17 goals and 11 assists in 47 games, he opened his account of the Premier League that the seventh game of the season, against West Ham United.

The following season saw the sniper born in Chambéry doing even better, scoring 22 goals and providing 11 assists in 51 appearances. More importantly, two of these assists came to the club’s triumph in the FA Cup final.

However, even if the former Montpellier man set up good figures and would continue to do so, he was also guilty of missing chances, many of them.

In fact, stories in 2014 castigated this lack of perceived clinicity and even said that Arsène Wenger would be unable to win a League title with him leading the line.

These criticisms continued in the following years and became impossible to ignore during the 15/16 season, when the club had the chance to win its first title since 2004, but between Gameweek 22 and 36, Giroud failed to score a single goal in the competition.

The 30-year-old finally saw his role in the decreased team when Alexandra Lacazette was signed in the summer of 2017, then when the club wanted to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the following winter, it was sold in Chelsea for around 18 million pounds sterling to allow the Gabonese star to arrive.

As he left the Emirates, Giroud had what most would consider an impressive all-powerful record of 105 goals and 38 assists in 253 appearances, and three FA cups to his credit.

The international striker was someone who certainly had his faults, but given his impressive record and his moments of magic, he was also unjustly made of the scapegoat.

Interestingly, there is one of Arteta’s signatures in this current team which could perhaps be described as modern Giroud in this way.

Arsenal’s modern giroud

The first person to whom most of you probably think here is a gyoker, and although he can possibly adapt to the bill – if he does not start to mark more – it is not the player in question.

Instead, it is a Mikel Merino man with 28 million pounds sterling who could be examined in the same way as the former Gunners striker.

The most significant similarity between the pair is that, as things happen, it seems that Spanish has become one of the current clubs of the club when things go wrong.

When Arteta’s team loses, drops points or even plays badly, and the midfielder has even played ten minutes of action, it is impossible not to see the fans and the experts striking him online – even when it is not really his fault.

However, while the former Real Sociedad star certainly has its drawbacks and can sometimes slow down the game, especially when it starts alongside Declan Rice, it has a fairly impressive record with the North Londoners, and like Giroud, already has out of competition.

For example, the “monster” of 6 feet 3 feet, as the Ben Mattinson analyst nicknamed him, made 51 appearances for the club, totaling 3028 minutes, during which he scored ten goals and provided five assists.

This comes out of an achievement of a goal every 3.4 games, or every 201.86 minutes, which is massively impressive for an eight which was forced to play up on several occasions.

In addition, some of its objectives have been important.

Last season, he scored two goals to win the match at Leicester City, then scored at home against Real Madrid and provided a decisive pass to Bernabéu.

In addition to that, it was his sensational header that brought the team back in terms of level against Newcastle yesterday afternoon.

If he had not been on the ground at that time, there is a very real chance that the Gunners might not even have obtained a point, not to mention three.

In the end, like Giroud before him, Merino has come for many sticks since he moved to Arsenal and often found himself the scapegoat.

However, as long as he continues to overcome with major objectives, there is a chance that he will end up obtaining the credit he deserves.