Olivier Giroud joins the Arsenal 100 goals club

Since joining Arsenal in 2012, Olivier Giroud has never been your prototypical striker. He’s not especially fast, nor tries to take on defenders and beat them while on the ball. But he is big, good looking and consistently scoring goals for Arsenal. Now, only a little more than five seasons into his tenure with the team, he’s become the 19th player to join Arsenal’s 100 goals club.

It wasn’t in the most spectacular fashion, unlike his Puskas nominated wondergoal, firing home Arsenal’s fourth from the penalty spot in their wild game against BATE, but every goal counts. It’s also a goal we’ve been expecting for a while, but the big Frenchman has been off to a slow start, often coming off the bench rather than starting.

The team, however, knows how much he still brings to the team. Theo Walcott, sitting on a hattrick, made sure Giroud got his shot. "Obviously there was a chance for me to take a penalty, but knowing that Olivier was on 99 goals, I felt like it's a great moment in his career to get 100 goals for Arsenal. I've achieved that myself and I know the feeling, it's brilliant."

Per Mertesacker was also full of praise.

He’s so valuable to our squad and he’s earned the respect of everyone by behaving properly, as a member of this team. The ultimate outcome is that he scores lots of goals, but when he wasn’t playing, he’s never thought about giving up or taking another road.

Oli is the type of leader you need in a team. He has a huge influence and that makes him so valuable. That’s why I appreciate his character

His 100 goals came in 237 professional appearances, scoring 17, 22, 19, 24, 16 goals each season. Despite his slow start, there is every reason that he can continue being prolific for Arsenal and be a reliable option up top in all competitions. He now only trails Walcott in goals among active players. Has a shot to even pass him, should he get enough time. Either way, it’s not over and expect more of this from Big Sexy. The man scores when he wants.

Who’s up for the 20th member of the list? Well, Alexis Sanchez only needs 27 more and Alexandre Lacazette needs 96. Hey... it could happen.