GIROUD
Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud admitted his sublime scorpion
kick in the 2-0 win against Crystal Palace had an element of luck, despite many
placing it among the greatest Premier League goals of all time.
Giroud was keen to impress in only his second league start
of the season, and the France striker needed only 17 minutes to leave
an indelible impression as he scored an incredible goal to break the
deadlock at the Emirates.
The Eagles were in a position high up the pitch when a move
broke down, and the Gunners counter-attacked at pace down the left flank with
Alexis Sanchez.
Despite the Chilean's centre being slightly behind Giroud,
the 30-year-old showed immense athleticism and improvisation to flick the ball
past Wayne Hennessey via the underside of the crossbar - but the player himself
was swift to downplay the goal.
'First, Alexis gave me the ball behind me, and I try to back
heel and I have maximum luck,' Giroud told Sky Sports.
'That's just about luck, I was not in a good balance, but
it's a great feeling. I wanted to score from the first minute from Nacho's
(Monreal) cross when I was a bit short. It's a nice one for the team. I've
never done this before, so it's all about luck.
'I tried to deflect it, in this position you can't do
something else, I was lucky so it's nice for me and nice for the team. I think
it's my best one.'
While Giroud was modest about his spectacular strike,
full-back Hector Bellerin lavished praise on the Frenchman for the goal that
will almost certainly come to define his career at the Emirates.
'I couldn't believe it (the goal),' Bellerin said. 'I've
seen Ollie do stuff like that in training, we know what's he's capable of.
'It's the first goal of the game, we had lots of chances, so
it's nice when one goes in. It's important to keep up with everyone else
and build up some team performances, we need to be in a strong run to be up
there.'
Alex Iwobi's header completed a routine win for Arsene
Wenger's side in the second half to move them up to third in the league, but
the players have very little time to reflect on one moment of brilliance with
the trip to Bournemouth coming on Tuesday.
Giroud added: 'We need to keep going, we need good momentum
to stay up there and to carry on. The team up front (ahead of us) are doing
really well in a strong run. We need to respond, it's nice to win the first
game of the year.'
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