Arsenal News: Olivier Giroud offers overview of Gunners' Europa League preparations

YOU can tell it is the Europa League when Arsenal’s perennial bench-warmer Olivier Giroud is suddenly the main character.

Arsenal star Olivier Giroud is on the cusp of reaching 100 goals for the GunnersGETTY

Arsenal star Olivier Giroud is on the cusp of reaching 100 goals for the Gunners

With the French striker on the cusp of reaching 100 goals for Arsenal it was seen as good enough a reason to have him as a rare figure sat alongside Arsene Wenger at top table to fulfil UEFA media stipulations.

As they are on the pitch, his performance in front of the cameras was solid, dependable, offered something different, but never really got the pulse racing.

His “obvious” ability, even in a press conference, became obvious when his first 79-word answer contained the word “obviously” three times.

“Obviously for a striker it’s always important to score, the statistics are very important, and I keep it in a part of my mind,” he said. “But the most important for me is to win, obviously, and after the goals will come.

“Obviously if we play well and we play our game and we are very focused on this Europa League, we want to go and win it, we are very ambitious and I am looking forward to the game tomorrow.”

Obviously for a striker it’s always important to score, the statistics are very important, and I keep it in a part of my mind

Arsenal star Olivier Giroud

Obviously. Perhaps that is the problem at the Emirates these days – there is so little for the fans to get excited about. Everything, even a major milestone, is made to look so mundane.

The Arsenal target man was just as one-dimensional when he was asked about the importance of Saturday’s win against Bournemouth.

“We needed this win definitely because we had a tough start, but with the two away games it was not easy and we wanted to bounce back as we can and it was a great, strong character response,” he said somewhat predictably.

“So yeah, we are pleased with this result and we’ve done very well, we’ve been efficient in front of goal and it’s for the confidence and now we need to focus on the Europa League and after we will have another big game on Sunday with the derby against Chelsea.”

Arsenal's Reiss Nelson scores fantastic free kick

But you don’t keep your place in the Arsenal squad without at least offering up something occasionally and Giroud did at least justify his inclusion by finally opening up on why he was still there at all.

“Actually that’s a very private… decision because it’s true that I was close to leaving the club because I said that I wanted to play,” he said. “But after a big reflection with everybody around me like my family and my close friends in a supportive way, I wanted to stay at the Arsenal and I thought the story was not over, finished at Arsenal.

“The club bring me a lot and I think I give it back and I still want to improve again and again and win some more trophies for the club, so as I said to the boss our story was not finished, so everybody was pleased with that.”

Hopefully for Arsenal fans, the final few chapters are just a little bit more gripping.

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