When Arsenal tied Arsene Wenger down to another two-year extension at the end of last season, fans thought the decision pretty weird considering the state of the club, but little did we know this was only the beginning.
Selling Giroud despite Lacazette injury
In January, Arsenal allowed Olivier Giroud to sign for Chelsea.
The 31-year-old had a year-and-a-half left on his contract and he wanted more playing time ahead of the World Cup this summer.
With the addition of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the France international knew his already dwindling game time would dry up further, even though Aubameyang was yet to complete his move from Dortmund at this stage.
Although Gooners were gutted to be losing Giroud, especially to a rival, most understood his reasoning.
Although the striker could have gone to Dortmund or even Everton last summer, he and his family wanted to stay in London. Wenger being the nice dude that he is allowed him to go to Chelsea for these reasons, which most of us agreed was pretty classy.
The issue was Laca had been carrying a knee injury, which fans didn’t find out about until the following month.
After the 26-year-old’s dodgy performance against Spurs at Wembley, he underwent surgery to correct the problem. And when Wenger confirmed that he would be out for five or six weeks, he implied that the problem was ongoing.
“He got a surprising swell of the knee after the game against Tottenham and he needed surgery very quick,” Wenger told beIN Sports.
“It’s a massive blow for us and we have to find a solution. Nobody could predict that.
“Nobody could predict that, but football is as well to do with unpredicted things and it’s always a good opportunity to find someone who steps in and does well.
“Lacazette is down, but I think he recently must’ve felt something in his knee, I don’t know. Maybe as well that’s an explanation why he was not scoring as many goals as he’s used to.”
EXCLUSIVE: "It's a massive blow for us."
Wenger reacts to the news of @LacazetteAlex's injury setback, with the French international expected to be out for 5 weeks.#AFC pic.twitter.com/9efofRapg5
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) February 13, 2018
If this was the case, why Arsenal sold their back-up striker, especially knowing that Aubameyang would be ineligible to play in the Europa League, nobody knows.
Giroud was the second forward Arsenal had sold to a rival that month after Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United. Again – another weird decision but one that was somewhat unavoidable considering the position the Chilean left Arsenal in.