Did you know that Olivier Giroud has now scored more Premier League goals than Eric Cantona?
Manchester United legend, Eric Cantona, netted 70 Premier League goals in 156 appearances for Leeds and the Red Devils. This includes 14 penalties.
Giroud, on the other hand, has netted 72 in 118 starts. Just two of these were spot-kicks.
This surprising stat doesn’t prove that Cantona was any less of a legend, nor that Giroud is genuinely a better player. The forward won the title four times with United and assisted a lot more. However, it does prove once again how underrated Giroud is. The big guy overtook Karim Benzema’s tally for France (27) in fewer matches long ago but there are many who would still argue that the Gunners should replace him with the Real Madrid ace.
Giroud has a year-and-a-half left on his current contract and, considering he’s yet to make a single Premier League start this season, I’d say he’s likely to move soon unless he’s suddenly decided that he actually quite likes sitting on the bench.
Of course, I certainly wouldn’t mind if he stayed.
The 31-year-old managed to bag two goals for the Gunners on Wednesday night during their 5-0 win over Huddersfield. This is despite the big guy not playing particularly well after coming on for Alexandre Lacazette at the break.
As yo can imagine, Twitter had a lot to say about the Cantona comparison:
Olivier Giroud – Puskas Award
— GB (@NEYPEMBE) November 29, 2017
Welcome to another lesson on why single stats without context makes everyone dumb.
Eric played with 2nd forward. Which is why he’s got 30 more assists than Giroud, yet only 2 less goals. 🤔🤔🤔🤔
— Name cannot be blank (@GhamGraham) November 30, 2017
U actually comparing them mate? Everybody knows Cantona is better. It’s just fun. U got so offended that u wrote 3 paras. Jeez.
— Manish (@manish_219) November 30, 2017