Olivier Giroud joined Arsenal in 2012 from Montpellier for a reported fee of €12 million but in 2018 he chose to leave the Gunners and move to Stamford Bridge.
It is really unusual for a Gunner to join one of their London rivals so a lot of eyebrows were raised when Giroud made this decision back in January of 2018.
But it is safe to say that his career graph has mostly gone upwards from that point onwards as he went on to win the World Cup with France last summer and this season he won the Europa League with Chelsea.
And now, Giroud has gone to explain what really acted as a catalyst for him to move out of the Emirates and join Chelsea.
“I didn’t want to leave,” Giroud told the BBC.
“I spoke with the boss – at this time, Arsene [Wenger] – and I told him: ‘Look, gaffer, I need some game time to play at the World Cup, that’s massive for me.’
“At the end of the day, we won it, so it was very important for me to leave.
“It was tough for me, but it was amazing to sign for a club like Chelsea. It was like an improvement for me because – OK, it’s Manchester City now – but Chelsea have been the best club in England over the past 10 years.
“It was a new challenge with big motivation, big targets.
“With Arsenal, it was difficult to fight for the title. We were always fighting for the Champions League places,
“I won a few FA Cups and Community Shields. When you can’t win the league, winning the FA Cup is quite nice, so I’ve got amazing memories.
“Chelsea is a club where you have maybe more expectations, higher expectations. They were winning more titles these past 10 years and obviously Arsenal wants to come back to the ‘Invincibles’ days, but it’s not easy.
“I’m not going to say we are doing things better at Chelsea. We just try to be as competitive as we can, to step up and win more trophies.”
