Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has said that he doesn’t think he should be judged just three games into the season, according to The Mirror.
The 25-year-old signed for the Gunners for a fee of around £12 million in the summer on the back of a championship winning season at French side Montpellier, where the forward ended the campaign as Ligue 1’s top goal-scorer bagging 21 goals.
However, the Frenchmen hasn’t enjoyed the best of starts in an Arsenal shirt, missing several opportunities that have been presented to him at the start of this Premier League season. Giroud’s lack of composure in front of goal so far this campaign has also been worsened by the fact that former Arsenal striker Robin van Persie, who scored 30 goals for the Gunners last season, has already scored four goals in his opening three games for Manchester United.
Despite this, Giroud says that he is not interested in people making comparisons between himself and RvP, “People seem to think [van Persie] is something that weighs on me, but I know that the manager has confidence in me.”
To add to this, Giroud claimed that any judgement of him is unfair as van Persie himself took a while to settle in North London, “I’m coming in after someone who scored 30 goals last season, but who took eight years to reach that level.”
Meanwhile, one man who hasn’t needed any time to settle in the Premier League is explosive Chelsea winger Eden Hazard. Hazard is a man Giroud knows well after playing against him on many occasions in the French league when Hazard was at Lille.
Giroud says he is not surprised by the impressive start the Belgian winger has made to his Chelsea career, who has already scored one goal and provided six assists for the Blues, “He’s very comfortable everywhere he goes. He’s a very good player who is going to give Chelsea quite a boost.”
Giroud will be hoping to rectify his fruitless start to the campaign when the Gunners welcome newly-promoted Southampton to the Emirates Stadium, whose position at the foot of the Premier League table may be deceiving given that they have lead against both Manchester City and Manchester United so far this season.