Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says he has no thoughts to losing his faith in striker Olivier Giroud, after an underwhelming start to the league season and a harrowing showing for France in a friendly against Serbia on Monday.
Wenger pledged his "full support" for Giroud, who scored 14 Premier League goals last season, as the Frenchman was booed by his countrymen in Monday's friendly as he missed a number of chances in the 2-1 victory.
Giroud is Arsenal’s top scorer with just one therefore, but the French striker goes into Saturday’s match against Stoke City in uneven form to begin the new year, with Wenger saying that is simply part of the reality of his position. Wenger’s men are seeking their first home win of the season against old rivals Stoke. Overall they have scored just three times, with two of those own goals contributed by the opposition.
“He has my full support and I believe that is part of being a striker,” Wenger said of Giroud.
“There is no striker in the world who has not been questioned. When he missed a chance and is booed, that can happen.”
Wenger also says Stoke “know how to behave” as Arsenal go in search for their first home win of the season against their old rivals on Saturday.
Relations between the two sides have been hostile since 2008 when Wenger claimed Stoke, then managed by Tony Pulis, had deliberately tried to hurt his players.
That claim was followed two years later by a tackle from Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross that left Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey with a badly broken leg.
Wenger also once branded Pulis’s side, who often used the long throws of Rory Delap as a rudimentary attacking weapon, as a “rugby team”.
But fast forward to 2015 and Stoke, now managed by Mark Hughes, are far easier on the eye than the team that carried out Pulis’s robust tactical instructions so effectively.
Indeed, the club even have five players on their books with Champions League winners’ medals – Xherdan Shaqiri, Marko Arnautovic, Ibrahim Affelay, Bojan Krkic and Marc Muniesa.
“They are team with a good culture of the Premier League,” Wenger said. “They know how to behave and they have experience as they have been here a long time in the Premier League.
“They have improved their technical quality as they have Afellay, Bojan, Shaqiri, Mame Diouf up front and Charlie Adam in midfield.
“They have a lot of technical players that can give you problems.”
Surprisingly for a manager with a habit of bearing a grudge, Wenger attempted to play down the extent of the previous ill-feeling between the two sides.
“They have always had good teams and overall when we go to Stoke they are always especially motivated against us,” he said.
“There is history a little bit because of what happened and overall it was always very difficult for us.
“For me there was never bad blood, it was just a game that was always very difficult for us to play. But I always focus on playing football and trying to get my team to play as well as we can.”
Arsenal have not only failed to win at home so far, but have also yet to register a goal in front of their own fans, having lost 2-0 to West Ham United and then shared a goalless draw with Liverpool.
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