How will Giroud AND Podolski fit into the Arsenal team?

What formation will Wenger use for Giroud, Van Persie and Podolski?

There is a strong possibility that Olivier Giroud will be signing for Arsenal in the coming weeks. According to Montpellier coach, Rene Girard, the clubs just need to agree a fee in order for the deal to be completed, which shouldn’t take long as he has a reported £12.8 mil release clause. Pay that sum of money, which is relatively peanuts for the title-winning top scorer in France, and we will have a talented striker on our hands. The most promising thing about this deal is that Giroud is at the perfect age for a striker. At 25, he should just be getting in the stage where he is at the peak of his abilities. A typical striker is usually at this peak for about 4-5 years (25-29/30). Hopefully I haven’t just jinxed him.

The possible signing, however, also raised a few important questions:

After the signing of Podolski and now possibly Giroud, who are both left footers along with van Persie, how will Arsenal utilize all three without causing a imbalance in the team?

There are a few options available:

1. We can revert to a 4-4-2 with Podolski playing on the left, with RvP playing in behind Giroud:

Walcott Song Wilshere Podolski

RvP
Giroud

2. We can play in our current system with Podolski on the left wing, RvP in the ‘Fabregas position’ and Giroud up top.

Song Arteta

RvP
Walcott. Podolski
Giroud

3. Arsenal are just signing Giroud now in order to ease the fan uneasiness of selling RvP.

4. Giroud will be a back up for van Persie and someone reliable to rotate him with.

The only negative is number 3 which we all obviously hope doesn’t happen. All the other options are good and provide an ingredient we didn’t have last season. It’s always welcome when Arsenal improve the quality of the squad.

Let’s hope this deal actually happens and that I never wrote this article for nothin