Thursday, 27 February 2014

Hot Topic






After a season of relative anonymity Arsenal’s strikers have suddenly gone from media hermits to the talk of the town with varying degrees of notoriety.

Between them Olivier Giroud, Yaya Sanogo and Joel Campbell have racked up some serious press coverage, which is impressive considering the Costa Rican was a complete unkonwn quantity just a week ago.

Indeed Sanogo had featured little in Arsenal's season before the FA cup match against Liverpool, a performance which endeared him to fans after his demolition of experienced centreback pairing Skrtel and Agger.

Despite not scoring Sanogo managed to rack up his first assist with a superb piece of control, his subsequent shot ricocheting off Mignolet's glove to fall at the feet of Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Both players showed through their performances in the Champions league that they are capable of playing at the highest level. Sanogo looked assured on the ball, TLR can remember a particular piece of skill in which the Frenchman turned two players with a single change of direction before showing the maturity to play a lofted ball through to an onrushing Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Campbell has been similarly impressive for Greek side Olympiakos with whom he is on a loan spell. It will take some time to forget his brilliant solo effort against Manchester United, who despite struggling in the league were yet to lose a game in the Champions league this season.

Whilst Sanogo looks to be a player in the mould of Giroud and Bendtner, tall, robust and with a decent degree of skill and awareness, Campbell could be the answer to Arsenal's lack of diversity in the striker's role.

As Santi Cazorla told TLR earlier this week he believes that Arsene must bring in a lythe, tricky forward to offer an alternative style to the back-to-goal tactic employed by Giroud and Sanogo.

What we would say is that although it is seriously early to be casting judgements on either player, Sanogo appears to have the capability to grow into a player who can combine the solidity that Giroud offers with the forward movement of a more nimble striker. Think City's Negredo. 

Either way the thought of either player flourishing next season is an exciting one, and it could be the case that after having been very weak in terms of attacking options, Wenger could be faced with the dilemma of who to start up front.

This raises some interesting questions for Giroud, whom after a bizarre incident last week in which the striker admitted to some 'domestic' issues, has been given some time to clear his head by the manager. This seems to have worked considering the Frenchman netted twice against Sunderland over the weekend, yet the long-term effect that his personal indiscretions may have on his ability to perform in the big matches remains to be seen.
 


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