I concur. While Pod has a great shot on him, Giroud's movement and positional sense is superior at present - just look at the movement for his last goal. Even when Pod is back I still think Giroud will be the main man.
Its a tricky one. We hav'nt seen the best of Podolski yet. One thing I will say is he is the best finisher in our squad. The guy strikes a ball as well as anybody. But Giroud is more physical, more hardworking, better in the air and holds the ball up better. Still I hope Podolski is given more chances down the middle. I have no doubt he has the ability to make a big impact at Arsenal but we've only really seen glimpses of his potential.
The advantage that Pod has is he already knows Ozil well from their time in the national team together. If nothing else, having 4 other Germans in the squad will help him settle in
With Ozil in the team we may move the ball on the ground more, and that may play to Podolski's strengths more than Giroud's. There is no doubt though that Giroud's ability in the air is a real asset in a team without very many players that can win a header.
Fun Ozil stats: please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Nice to see that the only player who beat him on any of these was Cazorla
Yet another list of impressive stats! I can't wait to see him play in an Arsenl shirt. Hopefully he will take part in our game on the weekend even if only as a sub. I assume it'll be a sub appearance because he won't have had long with the team but who knows, maybe he will start. Can't believe we are having to wait so long to see our new star signing play!
Completely irrelevant, because he hasn't even played a single PL game yet, and he did it in the spanish league, which isn't exactly renowned for its defending.
I was thinking the exact thing. Why are they comparing a guy whos played in a completely different league, of play and of varying technical ability. Wait for him to play in the EPL and see what he does. He might even get a higher percentage, or he may drop off and need some time to adjust.
'Completely irrelevant' is a bit silly - it's a highlight of his key abilities, not a definitive guide as to how he's going to be much better than every player in the PL - but I take your point about the different leagues. I wonder if Silva, Mata and Cazorla found their levels dropped off when they came over here? Anyway Kyle, if last night's WKD is still swilling around your veins and you're a bit fragile this morning, then this critical article on Arsenal's transfer window - one that brings up some relevant points - should perk you up.
Interesting article, but I always notice on these kind of analyses how they always assume past performance is an absolute indicator of future results. In football we find that past performances are very unreliable in this regard. Whilst my hopes for Ozil are very high, Hans is right when he points out that all his stats are with a different team in a different league. He may end up scoring more goals, less assists, or anything. Wenger may even play him as a striker for all we know.
To be fair on the continent they say the same about our league. We play exciting attacking football but defensively it's not the best. There's more goals in the EPL than La Liga as far as I'm awaire.
Some more wet 'n' wild stats: Last season there were 28 more goals in La Liga, with an average of 2.87 per game as opposed to 2.80 in the Premier League. As for shots per game per team, this averages out at 13.1 for La Liga and 13.9 for the Premier League. Real Madrid had 18.7 shots per game - a full 3.8 shots more than Valencia in second and 3 more per game than Arsenal (who, interestingly, were only sixth in England). What does this tell us? Not much I guess, though if Real's shots per game ration drops and Arsenal's increases, we might find there's a common reason. With further scrutiny. Maybe.
It's not if he's going to be a success, it's by how big of a success he'll be. He'll probably need a few loseners, but he will soon get into the swing of things. A real test will be the "Cold, wet and windy afternoon up in Stoke (West Ham now as Big Sam's taken over)". It'll be interesting how Ozil deals with the neanderthals....
