One of the favourite topics for football fans up and down the country is the question of whether Arsenal can actually, this year, finally, at last, win the league.

The sense of frustration and angst amongst their fanbase has been building steadily and with no let up for the last 10 or so years, with their two consecutive FA Cup triumphs a nice distraction but really doing little to allay this irritation.

One of the offshoots of this conversation is the question of whether their strike force is realistically good enough to win the league. Their main frontman, Olivier Giroud, is constantly questioned by pundits and experts alike, who wonder whether he is really a striker with enough stature, presence and real quality to be able to make the difference at key moments in a pressurised title chase.

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It’s easy to forget that Giroud actually has an extremely good goals to games ratio, and scores plenty for the amount of games he plays. His strike rate for the club is currently a goal just over every two games, which in itself is a perfectly decent record. However, looking at his form last season and so far this campaign, in the Premier League especially, and the stats look somewhat better.

Last year he scored 14 goals in only 27 league appearances (including cameos off the bench), and this season he’s scored nine in 16 games. Bearing in mind many of these have also come as a substitute, with Theo Walcott being preferred to start in some games, that is an extremely good record. Suddenly, 72 goals in just 121 starts for the club looks a little better. With his half century of goals for the Gunners in the Premier League coming up with his penalty against Aston Villa on Saturday (he becomes just the 7th Arsenal player to do this), his ratio starts to look fairly commendable.

What Giroud is finally getting this season is quality service from his midfielders, and a team that knows his strengths and has gelled together over the last few years. Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchex and Mesut Ozil are all world class creative forces, and from the flanks he’s also receiving plenty of good balls in, with Monreal, Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain all providing good quality from wide areas.

Set pieces are a dangerous part of his armoury as well, and surprisingly enough given peoples perceptions of them only playing elaborate, fancy tiki-taka football, Arsenal are actually looking like a force to be reckoned with from free-kicks and corners this year.

Giroud is also a first-class striker for other players in the side to benefit from and play off. The aforementioned trio of Sanchez, Ozil and Cazorla are all highly appreciative of his link up play and ability to hold the ball up and pin defenders. Arsenal now play a style of play that’s linked inextricably to Giroud, and frankly would find it difficult to now bring in another type of centre forward.

The fact is that Giroud will never be as good as Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp or Ian Wright. However, a team that wins the league needs all of their players to contribute to the maximum of their abilities, and if that happens will inevitably become more than the sum of it’s parts. With the creativity lined up behind him, Giroud is more than capable of leading the line, scoring 20+ goals this season and setting the agenda for how the Gunners play in big games.

If he does that, people might not be able to talk about Arsenal's search for the Premier League title for that much longer.

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