Arsene Wenger believes that Olivier Giroud’s two goals against Hull mid-week signal the end of the striker’s goalscoring drought.

Giroud has been having a hard time finding the back of the net lately, as has most of the team. However, because we rely on the big Frenchman so heavily, the absence of goals from him was particularly noticeable.

Fortunately, the 29-year-old scored two against Hull in the previous round of the FA Cup and, according to Wenger, this should spark his form back to life.

“It is a weight on the shoulders when the players don’t score,” the boss said.

“So the fact that they score will of course take that weight off. But it is a bit cyclic always, especially for Giroud. Giroud has cycles so it was a weight off his shoulders.

“Football has to be instinctive and you have to play with freedom. When you play with a bit more freedom, when the goals are natural. Every striker will tell you that.

“With Giroud, this season for example he has had games where he has gone boom, boom, boom, boom boom and after he had a little spell where he didn’t score and now I hope he has a repetition of his former spell and start to score again.”

This is an aspect of Giroud’s game which many have noticed. It often takes a couple of goals to shake off the striker’s cobwebs and open the floodgates. Let’s hope this is the case once again and Giroud will continue banging them in against Watford on Sunday in the FA Cup quarter-final.

Also on the scoresheet against Hull was Theo Walcott, who also scored a brace after a tough period in front of goal.