Arsene Wenger has often been criticised for putting too much faith in players who don’t always deserve it but in the case of Olivier Giroud, his trust is definitely warranted.
Even when a minority of the fans wanted Giroud’s head on a stick for fluffing chance after chance, Wenger stood by his man and although he dropped him to the bench for the good of the team in favour of the in-form Theo Walcott, the big guy was still brought on in the second half. He continued to get consistent playing time, albeit off the bench until he hit his stride again and is now back to being a regular starter.
Speaking about the striker before our clash with Chelsea on Sunday, Wenger claims that his faith in the 29-year-old never wavered.
“The objective for an attacker is always to score goals and have the manager’s trust,” Wenger said.
“He may have been on the bench but he never lost my support. My job is to pick players and make decisions, sometimes in his favour and sometimes not.
“It’s not because a player doesn’t start that you do not trust him, there are times in life where you can choose to go with another player.”
It’s this trust that the boss had in Giroud, which means he can be the striker he is today. If he played for any other team, he would have been dropped and that was it until the manager saw something spectacular in training. With Wenger, this is almost never the case. He’ll give players chances long after the fans have given up.
This can be a gamble, which doesn’t always pay off. However, with Giroud is definitely has.