Giroud ‘will not let side down no matter what’
Pochettino set to haunt former club Pep plans for one Hull of a ride next year
ARSENE Wenger hailed Olivier Giroud’s fighting spirit after the Arsenal striker marked his first Premier League start of the season with the winning goal against West Bromwich Albion.
Giroud headed home four minutes from the end of a game that had seemed destined to finish goalless at the Emirates Stadium.
Before Mond 1-0 victory, Giroud had come off the bench 10 times in Premier League games this season and scored three goals, making his only club starts in the Champions League. But Gunners boss Wenger insisted that Giroud had not had anything to prove to him despite his repeated absence from the starting lineup.
“He always makes a point when he comes on because he has scored many times when he comes in,” said Wenger.
“It has been frustrating for him because he didn’t always play but I think we have an honest relationship. I have big respect for him and he knows that he was not always playing but despite that he kept a strong motivation level.
“Part of the job of a player is to be always ready, the players who are always ready will be there and the players who feel sorry for themselves get their chance and they give you one more reason to justify why you didn’t select them. The fighters are always ready.” Giroud has been kept on the bench by the fine form of Chile forward Alexis Sanchez and just as he finally gets a chance to make his mark, he may also have to compete with fit-again forward Danny Welbeck.
“We are competing and I think if I only have one striker everybody says: ‘What are you doing?’” said TOTTENHAM Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino returns to former club Southampton today with a feeling of gratitude, but also a burning desire for a return to form on the road.
The north Londoners have not claimed an away victory since September, a run that has left them outside of the Premier League top four.
But they have won four of their last five games overall, which Pochettino, who left Southampton for White Hart Lane in 2014, believes can be the springboard to a title challenge.
“It’s always special to go back,” said the Argentine, who joined the club in January 2013 before leaving 16 months later.
“It was a special place for me Wenger.
“We need two or three strikers and we have Welbeck coming back so most of the time we have to make the decision depending on our opponent.
“Like today I knew they would play deep, and in the air Giroud could be the solution so I have to make the right decisions.
“We kept going and in the end when we couldn’t make a difference on the ground we made it in the air with maybe the only player in our team who can do that.”
Despite being left frustrated by Giroud’s late intervention, which came after his physical challenge on Albion defender Gareth McAuley, Baggies boss Tony Pulis agreed with Wenger’s assessment of the striker’s qualities.
“Gareth has got pinned by Giroud and you can’t allow him to do that because he’s such a strong player,” he said.
“He is excellent in the air and is untypical of what Arsene wants in lots of respects, but he has won them three points today.”
The fact that Wenger is able to use an established international so sparingly is one reason why Pulis regards Arsenal as potentially strong challengers to leaders Chelsea in the second half of the season.
Albion have lost 1-0 to both teams in successive away matches and Pulis believes Chelsea will have to spend during the January transfer window to match Arsenal’s depth.
“If you look at the players who were not playing and not in the team today, and then you look at Chelsea’s, I think Arsenal have definitely got the stronger squad,” said Pulis. — AFP and my family to have the possibility to start my career in the Premier League.
“It will always be a special place for me and a lot of people I still have a relationship with. It will be a good opportunity to see all the friends there.”
Spurs go into the game a mammoth 13 points below leaders Chelsea, having played a game more, but Pochettino refuses to give up on the title.
“It’s up to us to fight and be ambitious and try to be our best,” he said. — AFP MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola believes that every game in the second half of the season will be like a cup final for his title hopefuls.
A hard-earned 3-0 win at Hull kept pace with leaders Chelsea after Antonio Conte’s side beat Bournemouth earlier on Monday.
The Blues had opened up a 10-point gap over Guardiola’s team for who defeat at Hull would have spelled disaster.
The Catalan admitted that the pressure was on following that result, altough a Yaya Toure penalty, a tap-in from substitute Kelechi Iheanacho and an own goal from Curtis Davies ensured he eventually enjoyed his first Boxing Day in English football with a comfortable win.
But he also conceded that such pressure will be routine for his side in the new year, especially with title rivals Chelsea and Liverpool not encumbered by having to play in European competition.
“Sometimes you play before, sometimes you play later,” said Guardiola. “But it doesn’t matter whether you are seven points or 10 points behind when one team has won 12 in a row.
“We have one game to finish the first half of the season and then the second starts and it’s like a final for us if we want to be there until the end of the season.
“Liverpool went so close one year because they had one game a week and last year Leicester it happened the same. This time Chelsea and Liverpool are the ones.
“We have played seven more games than them and important ones like the Champions League. That is why it will be tough. It will be hard but we have to do absolutely everything to be there.
“What we have to do is win every game and play like this last one.”
Guardiola had further good news when he learned that his England defender John Stones will not face a long spell on the sidelines following injury. Recalled after being dropped for City’s last two games, Stones lasted less than 20 minutes before suffering a knee injury, but one which should not see him sidelined for long.
“He had a huge kick on his knee and couldn’t run,” explained Guardiola. “When you look at his knee, it is badly swollen but it is just a kick, not something serious like ligaments.”
Even without Stones, City kept a clean sheet for just the second time in nine away league games so far this season, a decent achievement given a strong, physical and direct approach from Hull.
“Like always,” smiled Guardiola when asked about the direct style his team faced. “Watford play like this, Arsenal play like this, with Giroud, West Brom, all the teams play direct.
“But I’m not worried about that long ball. I’m worried about the second one, the third one, sometimes the fourth one. That’s the important thing.”
Hull’s hopes of becoming the fourth team in a quarter of a century of Premier League football to survive after being bottom at Christmas look ever distant although manager Mike Phelan could be justifiably proud of their latest effort.
“I thought to take on City the way we did was the right thing to do and there was a bit of anguish and frustration from their dugout at times,” he said. “But that first goal is massive. We tried to have a go after that but it is just a case of can we manage the game better. We need to learn from that as we are on the end of another defeat – a harsh defeat because I don’t think it was a 3-0 game.”— AFP