Arsene Wenger subbed off Olivier Giroud after Arsenal were reduced to 10 men against Chelsea and the entire Emirates grumbled in confusion.

Out of everyone on the pitch, the big Frenchman looked the most likely to get a goal and taking off a striker when we were 1-0 down, early in the match, was a bit of a strange decision.

However, the boss explained after the 1-0 loss that it wasn’t anything personal against Giroud, it was simply that we needed pace on the counter attack and, with all due respect to the 29-year-old, pace isn’t one of his strong points.

“The fact is we needed to get strength on the counter-attack and needed pace,” he said.

“That is why I made the decision.”

In addition, the Chelsea centre backs enjoy playing against a big, strong striker. They could happily mark Giroud all day. However, as has been proven in the past, they do find it difficult to deal with pace. This was where Theo Walcott was meant to shine but on the big day, he failed to produce what we needed… and then got subbed off himself…