Arsenal take on Chelsea in the FA Cup final this Saturday at Wembley and Mikel Arteta has showered praises on striker Olivier Giroud before this high profile encounter.
Giroud was on the verge of leaving Chelsea at the start of the new year but things did not work out and eventually, he ended up staying at the club. And as luck would have it, the Frenchman is currently in fine goalscoring form for the Blues.
“With Oli, you can see in the last few months how he is performing, the amount of goals he has scored for them,” Mikel Arteta said, in his press conference. “We know him, he has the experience in the finals as well.
“In the case of David, it is such a special day for him to play against his former club and hopefully he can do a performance like he did against City in the semi-final.
“I’m not surprised [by Giroud’s form], because I know Oli. He is a fighter. Even when he was playing for us and he had some difficult moments, he always reacted.
“He always works really hard and comparing with the greatest [forwards the club has had] is like always. They’ve done it and they did it for long periods where they were really successful at the club. So any comparison with them is always difficult.
“I’m glad that he is doing really well, but hopefully tomorrow he won’t do that well.”
Olivier Giroud might have played in only 18 Premier League games this season for the club but he has been a regular starter for Chelsea since the resumption of the 2019-20 season and has also repaid that faith with crucial goals in crucial matches over the past couple of weeks.
The World Cup winner is clearly above Tammy Abraham in the pecking order and he has found the back of the net in Chelsea’s previous four matches across all competitions.
So it’s pretty clear Lampard will opt to use Olivier Giroud upfront once again on Saturday meaning the likes of David Luiz and Rob Holding will have a tough time in dealing with the physicality of the 33-year-old.
