Arsenal’s Century Club – Olivier Giroud
Oliver Jonathan Giroud was born in Chambery, France on September 30th 1986.
He began his career at Grenoble in Ligue 2 before joining Tours in 2008. He was the league’s highest scorer with 21 goals in his second season at Tours. On July 1st 2010 he joined top-flight side Montpellier and scored 21 goals in the 2011–12 season, helping Montpellier to their first ever Ligue 1 title.
Giroud made his full international debut for France in 2011. He has earned 87 caps, and was part of the teams which reached the quarter-finals at UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the final of UEFA Euro 2016 in which he received the Bronze Boot as joint second-highest goal scorer, and won the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
On 26 June 2012, Arsenal signed Giroud on a long-term contract for a fee of around £9.6 million and was given the number 12 shirt. He made his debut on 18 August as a substitute in a goalless home draw against Sunderland in the Premier League and scored his first Arsenal goal on 26 September, in a 6–1 win against Coventry City in the League Cup. He scored his first goal in Europe in the UEFA Champions League in a 2–2 draw at Schalke.
On 22 August, 2014 he broke his left tibia and was ruled out for four months but returned to action quicker than expected, replacing Aaron Ramsey for the last 13 minutes of a 1–2 home defeat against Manchester United on 22 November and scoring Arsenal’s consolation goal in added time.
On 30 May, 2015 he scored Arsenal’s fourth goal after appearing as a substitute in the team’s 4–0 FA Cup Final victory over Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium.
On 1 January 2017, he scored his iconic and unforgettable back heeled “scorpion kick” volley in a 2–0 win against Crystal Palace, a goal described by Arsène Wenger as the greatest he had seen at the Emirates Stadium. The goal later earned him the FIFA Puskás Award for the goal of the year.
During the 2017 FA Cup Final against Chelsea at Wembley, Giroud came on in the 78th minute with the score 1–1, and a minute later he delivered an assist for Aaron Ramsey to score the winning goal which saw Arsenal lift the Cup for a record-breaking thirteenth time.
On 28 September 2017 during Arsenal’s Europa League group game away to BATE Borisov, Giroud scored his 100th goal for the club in a 4–2 victory.
| Arsenal’s Century Club | ||||||
| # | Player | Years | Games | ** | Goals | GPG |
| 12 | Olivier Giroud | 2012-18 | 253 | 237 | 105 | 0.42 |
| 13 | RVP | 2004-12 | 278 | 238 | 132 | 0.47 |
| 14 | Alan Smith | 1987-95 | 347 | 251 | 115 | 0.33 |
| 15 | Frank Stapleton | 1972-81 | 300 | 276 | 108 | 0.36 |
| 16 | Denis Bergkamp | 1995-06 | 423 | 296 | 120 | 0.28 |
| 17 | John Radford | 1962-76 | 481 | 306 | 149 | 0.31 |
| 18 | Joe Hulme | 1926-38 | 374 | 307 | 125 | 0.33 |
| 19 | Theo Walcott | 2005-18 | 397 | 370 | 108 | 0.27 |
| ** Games played to reach 100 goals. | ||||||
GunnerN5
Bergkampesque 
Cheers GN5, I love it that OG did it quicker than vP; who would have thought it?! Like you I love this player and in terms of attackers he is close to Henry and Bergkamp in terms of bigger impact he had on the team. I know he his football was nowhere near as athletic and beautiful as our biggest heroes but I bet his impact on our goals was similar. Very few players make other players better and that is exactly what Ollie did: both Ozil and Sanchez benefited enormously and so did Theo. He never complained about playing with his back towards goal and help with build-up of our attack. His contributions were priceless both in attack and defence (and even midfield). Wenger made a few mistakes and one of them was to let Ollie go to the horrible Chavs.
And what a left foot!
Thank you GN5. Ollie was underrated by many people, mostly in the media.
The best Left footed strikers that the fans still love are Ollie, Reyes, Poldi and Eduardo Silva.
Although he celebrated Chav’s victory but I felt that the club let him down the same way Poldi was treated. They had to move on for more minutes.
His brilliant hold up play and being a traditional centre forward made all Gooners love him.
Morning all, Lets not forget the magic in Liam Brady’s left foot and the delicate skills of Mesut Ozil.
I’m not sure about finishing this season by playing in neutral stadiums, does that mean if the situation is the same in 3 months that we start next season playing in neutral stadiums?
allekev, I’m not sure that I understand the rational behind playing in empty neutral stadiums. Concluding the season as it was originally scheduled in the home and away empty stadiums seems like the same end result.
It’s entirely possible that we will have football played in empty stadiums until a vaccine is discovered for this virus – what is that months? or years?.
Interesting read on fans reaction to returning to stadiums and thoughts on how to open up football.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52528124
New Post 🙂