Olivier Giroud netted his 50th Premier League goal on Sunday against Aston Villa as he slotted home Arsenal’s opener from the penalty spot.
Becoming the third fastest player to score 50 league goals for Arsenal, narrowly squeezing out Dennis Bergkamp to take up his place behind Thierry Henry and Ian Wright, Giroud has improved season-on-season since his arrival at the club and that’s something that the stats back up.
Branded a flop not long after he arrived, solely because he didn’t come with a mega rep and price tag, the Frenchman has won over the majority of his critics and his stats make great reading.
Here are his stats since the start of the 12/13 season, goals per game ratio in brackets:
- 2013/14: 22 in 46 (0.48)
- 2014/15: 19 in 26 (0.73)
- 2015/16: 14 in 16 (0.88)
As you can see, he’s scoring almost twice the number of goals per game compared to when he first arrived.
What price would he cost now?
Certainly a hell of a lot more than the £12m Arsenal paid for him, that’s for sure.