Arsenal 2-1 Everton: Five Talking Points

Arsenal climbed to the top of the Premier League table for the first time since February 2014, with a 2-1 win over Everton at the Emirates stadium in London. The Gunners were lifted to a victory with two first half goals from in-form striker Olivier Giroud and his countryman Laurent Koscielny.The game started off slowly for both teams as the home side looked rusty coming from a 2-0 mid-week win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Whereas, for Everton, they barely had a chance to put their stamp on the game because Arsenal still kept the ball well.Arsenal dominated a fair share of the possession and Petr Cech was never troubled apart from Ross Barkley’s deflected effort off Gabriel that ended up in the back of the net. The second half was well matched and the Gunners held onto the lead, making their tough week, a good week.Let’s look at the five main talking points from the clash at the Emirates:

#1 Giroud\'s rich vein of form

Ever since Theo Walcott replaced him in the starting eleven, Olivier Giroud has looked like the real deal for Arsenal. He had come off the bench to score four times for the Gunners and had rescued his side on such occasions. Arsene Wenger decided to rotate his squad for their clash against Everton at home.

He replaced Theo Walcott with the Frenchman as a result of the good form shown by Giroud in their recent matches where he has scored crucial goals for Arsenal, the last being the first goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. 

Olivier Giroud has now scored 3 goals in the last week, scoring against Watford, Bayern and now Everton. He has also achieved the feat of scoring in five consecutive games for club and country. He had scored two goals for France in the international break as well. More importantly for the French striker, he has now scored five goals in the Premier League, compared to Walcott’s two.

He will be hoping he can keep his place in the starting eleven come next weekend against Swansea. The mid-week Capital One Cup clash against Sheffield Wednesday should see one striker rested, if not both. 

Giroud, who has always been criticized for not being a poacher in the box. He has always been under pressure as fans have always been on his back and have repeatedly asked Arsene Wenger to buy a new striker.

But the man has not disappointed. He has time and again shown that he can be the number one striker for the Gunners. His performance against Everton was tidy, neat and precise. He held up the ball well, headed home his goal and most importantly lasted the full game.