Fascinating stats have emerged that suggest that Theo Walcott could actually make more of a contribution to Arsenal than Olivier Giroud.

Reddit user, Weaksidewing, recently put this fascinating piece together on the amount of points each player has earned Arsenal this season through goals scored. Their aim? To highlight how undervalued Giroud is as a goalscorer.

Gaining inspiration from Anderson & Sally’s The Numbers Game and using data from the last 10 years to figure out how much each goal scored (eg first, second, third etc) is ‘worth’, they applied the results to goals our players have scored this season and how important they’ve been.

Unsurprisingly, Alexis Sanchez is on top, having earned the Gunners 8.81 points so far this season. However, what may shock some is that Theo Walcott, who’s currently injured, has earned us the second highest amount of points (5.04) while Giroud is third (4.41).

Walcott’s scored eight Premier League goals so far this season, which is one more than Oli. However, the England international’s absence through injury combined with Giroud’s recent form and impact makes it easy to forget Walcott’s contribution earlier in the season.

As the writer of the piece points out, this isn’t to say that Giroud isn’t undervalued, nor are these stats set in stone, but from my point of view, it’s interesting to see Walcott’s impact when he’s so easily written off.