Chelsea continued their impressive winning start to their Premier League campaign as they made it five wins in their first five games with a 4-1 home win over newcomers Cardiff City.

Belgian maestro Eden Hazard was once again the darling of Stamford Bridge as he banged in a wonderful hat-trick.

French World Cup winner Olivier Giroud started the game as the team’s main striker but he failed to get on the scoresheet. Yet the former Arsenal man was terrific and showed Blues boss Maurizio Sarri why he should be the Italian’s first choice hitman.

Giroud’s play isn’t all about him getting on the scoresheet and once again today he showed that he can be a superb link-up forward and a perfect target-man.

The thirty-one year old has a terrific understanding with world-class talent Hazard.

Giroud is constantly there to receive the ball from Eden before neatly slipping it back into Hazard’s path. We all know that Chelsea’s number ten adores seeing as much of the ball as possible and Olivier always seems to have the ability to give Eden the right pass into dangerous positions and that’s why the partnership thrives.

Today was the Frenchman’s first league start of the season and his selection instantly paid off as he assisted in two of Hazard’s strikes. He perfectly laid the ball off to his teammate twice and Eden Hazard finished off the two chances. Giroud also set up Pedro, when the Spaniard scored against AFC Bournemouth earlier in the campaign.

After the Cardiff City game, Eden stated:

“Olivier Giroud is a target man – he is probably the best in the world – he is a pleasure to play with.”

That’s high praise indeed but you can see why fellow forwards love playing with Giroud. He’s intelligent and he works ever so hard. The veteran comes deep, keeps the ball, holds the ball up and he is fantastic in the air.

The big striker was Didier Deschamps main number nine during France’s winning run at this summer’s World Cup. Some questioned Deschamps for continually selecting Olivier, the attacker didn’t score a single goal in Russia but it’s his overall play that’s so important for his team.

During the World Cup, Deschamps took time to really praise Olivier Giroud:

“He is important for our style, we need his supporting play. It’s good if he scores but Olivier is always very generous and doesn’t complain about working hard.

“He might not have the flamboyant style but the team needs him even if he doesn’t score.”

It’s also a bit of a myth that the French internationalist doesn’t score. He’s scored 76 goals in 196 English top flight appearances. He’s also banged in 32 times in 83 caps for France; only Thierry Henry, Michel Platini and David Trezeguet have scored more for Les Bleus.

His aerial ability also makes him useful when it comes to making a strong defensive contribution at defending set-pieces.

With Alvaro Morata still struggling to make a real impact as Chelsea’s top forward, I think Maurizio Sarri needs to stick with Olivier Giroud in his starting eleven. He’ll grab you a few goals but more importantly he seems to get the most out of Eden Hazard and keeping the Belgian happy could be paramount as Chelsea try and mount a serious challenge for the Premier League title!

Posted on September 15th, 2018 by scott
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