Between 2012 and 2018, it was an all-too-familiar sight at Arsenal. Halfway through a second half, the Gunners would turn to their French striker Olivier Giroud to make an impact from the bench, either needing a goal from somewhere, or relying on his hold-up play to help maintain a lead.
Giroud, a clinical finisher but also one of the classiest offensive talents Europe has produced in recent years, would do his job and do it well, sometimes winning personal acclaim, but then the next game would come along and it was back to square one.
Alexis Sanchez would start or latterly, for a brief period, Alexandre Lacazette.
Across six campaigns, the forward made 180 appearances for Arsenal, with 68 of them from the bench, and when in 2016/17 he scored an eye-catching seven from cameos it gained him a nickname no player really wants, a nickname he hasn’t been able to shrug off since, that of ‘supersub’.
It was pretty much the same story at Chelsea, with over half his outings seeing him replace the likes of Gonzalo Higuain and Tammy Abraham, and then he was off to join AC Milan, where people scoffed at the average age of the now well-seasoned Giroud and his new strike partner Zlatan Ibrahimovich.
Serie A, so it was claimed, was becoming a retirement home for players past their prime.
Only then the World Cup happened, with Giroud once again stepping in as an understudy following an injury to Karim Benzema, and once again reminding one and all of what a terrific player he is.
Combining brilliantly throughout with Kylian Mbappe, Giroud fired four goals in the tournament, taking France to another final and becoming his nation’s record goal-scorer in the process.
It's a tally that surpasses Thierry Henry’s international haul, so too the great Just Fontaine. It’s a tally that puts Benzema in the shade.
Giroud’s impact in Qatar has brought about an acknowledgement of his supreme attributes and frankly, it’s about time too.
We are reminded that from 2014/15 to his eventual departure to Stamford Bridge, only two forwards racked up superior Premier League goals-per-minute ratios, those players being Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane.
Olivier Giroud has an ELITE trophy collection 🏆 pic.twitter.com/z584MeWimv
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 6, 2023
We are reminded that on joining Milan, he fired them to their first Scudetto for 11 years, scoring, aptly, 11 goals. With the French star leading the line again, our Serie A odds offer up 5/1 for the Rossoneri to repeat their feat.
And we are reminded that at the age of 36, Giroud remains a fine vintage, producing the goods on the world’s biggest stages, as lethal and cunning now as he ever was.
This is truth, should not be a surprise and indeed, it’s hardly a far-fetched football prediction to back the striker to regularly find the net for a few more years yet.
A late starter, the Chambery-born finisher didn’t even make his international debut until he was 25, joining Arsenal just twelve months later.
He has spent every minute since playing catch-up. Is Olivier Giroud under-rated? Undoubtedly he was and is. And he has always been infinitely more than a supersub.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 11th January 2023
