5 Players Arsenal must hold onto next summer

#3 Olivier Giroud

Will Giroud be scoring Arsenal goals like this for years to come?

There seems to be a somewhat attacking-orientated theme to this list of players so far and it's no coincidence. The Gunners are saturated with exceptional quality in their midfield and attack and, given that this is where the team's strengths currently lay, these are also the players attracting the most interest.

Oliver Giroud has a 'Marmite' quality about him - on one side of the stadium his name is being belted out jovially, on the other he is being lambasted and reduced to the title of the worst striker to grace the Arsenal - there are a host of forwards who would have a thing or two to say about that.

Ultimately though, Giroud is imperative to Arsenal FC. The former-Montpellier striker netted 16 goals in 17 appearances last season and dispatched his 100th goal for the club this September from the spot against BATE Borisov. The Frenchman has scored some remarkable goals in his Arsenal career but it is the economic quality (not an aesthetic one) of his game which renders him so important.

Alexandre Lacazette has been fantastic since joining from Lyon in the summer and as a result his compatriot Giroud has been demoted to the bench. In a sense though, this is where Giroud is most dangerous. Against Huddersfield the centre-forward came off the bench to bag a brace and finish the game off. He stuck the ball in the back of the net from close range as all great goalscorers do and the simplicity of his game is where he shines.

He may have adapted into a somewhat more dynamic forward able to make intelligent runs since moving to North London but his core principle still remains - he is a target-man forward with height and strength on his side. This option from the bench enables Wenger to give Lacazette a rest but simultaneously introduce a new kind of player to shake-up opposition defences.