Arsenal Debate – Is Giroud on his way to becoming world class?

I know it is probably too early in the season to judge him properly, but with four goals in five games so far, Olivier Giroud has got off to a flying start and has got everybody talking about him. After another sublime finish from the big Frenchman gave the Gunners a great victory over Tottenham in the north London derby, is Giroud showing signs of becoming a world class striker? His manager Arsene Wenger definitely thinks Giroud has markedly improved since joining the club last summer after guiding Montpellier to the French title. His record there also shows a big improvement in his second season, and the pattern was the same at his previous club Tours. He has also gone up a level every time he moves clubs, so if he has improved so much in the last five years, what is to stop him continuing to get better, especially with the coaching of Wenger behind him? “It shows you that every striker who comes here improves,” said Wenger. “We must have some quality to develop this aspect of the players. I don’t fix him any limit but today he showed a good mixture of physical commitment and technical ability. That’s what you want from a striker. “Maybe he’s stimulated as well by the fact that every day you announce a striker somewhere. That has maybe helped him as well.” So he has got determination and a drive to succeed as well as his physical and technical attributes, and he looks set to enjoy a much more prolific season with Arsenal. The inevitable comparison, however, is with our former player Robin van Persie. Giroud still has a long way to go to hit the Dutchman’s heights, but it also took van Persie many years to reach those heights. Of the two, Giroud was by far the better this weekend, but do you think he has what it takes to do it on a regular basis? We certainly need him to.