Why Olivier Giroud Is Under Most Pressure for France Following Win over Armenia

Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud must have felt a moment of anguish as Andre-Pierre Gignac inspired France to a 3-0 victory over Armenia on Tuesday night. The pressure is now on the former Montpellier forward to come back stronger, or risk losing his place in the France team.

As a professional footballer, it must be difficult to watch from the sidelines as your team or country continue to impress, as you have to miss out through injury. But to sit and watch your replacement put in a superb performance must be exceptionally tough to stomach.

Gignac scored France’s second goal from the penalty spot, his first goal for his country in five years, but it was his overall performance that caught the eye. After just eight minutes, Gignac latched on to a lovely pass from centre-back Jeremy Mathieu before steering it towards the back post, with Loic Remy adding the finish.

Not long after the first goal, Gignac put Remy through for a chance to add his second. The forward controlled the ball well, quickly turned and released Remy with a lovely weighted pass, then the Chelsea forward turned it onto his right foot but could only watch as his shot hit the base of the far post.

In the second half, with the game coming to a close, it was Gignac who set up France’s third. Having dropped a little deeper, it was the Marseille forward who looked up and picked out substitute Antoine Griezmann with a superb ball over the top of the Armenian defence, the Atletico Madrid forward rounded the ‘keeper and sealed victory for Les Bleus.

Giroud has only played 72 minutes in the Premier League this season due to injury. At the start of the season he wouldn’t have classed Gignac as a threat to his position, but after scoring nine goals in nine games for Marseille, the burly striker has fired his way back into the France team.

Any problems with coach Didier Deschamps have been patched up, and now, as long as Gignac keeps scoring and showing how much he has improved under new OM boss Marcelo Bielsa, it will be hard for Giroud to win back his place in the squad for the ongoing preparation matches for Euro 2016.

With Deschamps playing 4-3-3 with one central striker, the France boss likes to pick two players who can play as the No. 9, currently Karim Benzema and Gignac, then he will pick another forward who can play as both the No. 9 and on the wing.

Remy and Alexandre Lacazette—along with maybe even Wissam Ben Yedder or one of the stars from the under-21 side—will do battle for that place, potentially leaving Giroud out in the cold.

It is very unlikely that Benzema will ever lose his place, unless through injury or a failure to play any minutes for Real Madrid.

At Arsenal, Giroud now also has competition from Danny Welbeck to lead Arsene Wenger’s attack. On both fronts, the form of his competition has pushed Giroud down the pecking order.

Giroud wasn’t supposed to return until 2015, but as revealed by BBC Sport, the striker is ahead of schedule, and could return before the end of the year. Unfortunately for the 28-year-old, he returns with a huge amount of pressure on his shoulders.

Last season, Giroud scored 16 league goals for Arsenal, but still came under a fair amount of criticism from the Gunners fans for not hitting the target often enough. With Welbeck having started his Arsenal career well, Giroud needs to hit the ground running.

If Giroud can’t get back up to speed and find the kind of form that can challenge Gignac, it would stop the Arsenal striker from winning back his place in the France squad for the foreseeable future.

Losing your place when your form is questionable may be understandable, but would still be hard to take. Losing your place when you are unable to do anything about it, though, must be a huge blow to your confidence.

With Gignac firing on all cylinders and looking unstoppable, the pressure is on Giroud to not only bounce back from injury, but to shake off the cobwebs and play his way back in Deschamps’ France squad.