Arsenal's Olivier Giroud wears a black armband in tribute to the victims of this week's Islamist militant attacks in France, during their English Premier League soccer match against Stoke City at the Emirates Stadium in London January 11, 2015.
Arsenal's Olivier Giroud wears a black armband in tribute to the victims of this week's Islamist militant attacks in France, during their English Premier League soccer match against Stoke City at the Emirates Stadium in London January 11, 2015. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Olivier Giroud has confessed to the official Arsenal FC website that in his growing up years he was a fan of the prolific AC Milan striker Andrey Shevchenko and tried to model his game on him. Mesut Ozil, who is known for his assists, has thrown light on his games and explained to the same website what makes him provide so many assists in a season.

Olivier Giroud, 28, is playing his third season for Arsenal. He has so far scored 45 goals in 108 appearances for the club, his highest so far for any club in his career. He has already won the FA Cup as well as the FA Community Shield with Arsenal; he had previously won the Ligue 1 title with his former club Montpellier.

"He runs in a special way and he was really powerful-short but strong. I tried to imitate his shot as well," Giroud told the website In the recent interview confessing that he tried to model his run on the Ukrainian striker. He also talked about his runs to the near post in set piece situations. He has been advised by the manager to run towards the near post so that even if he fails to get a contact with the ball he will draw defenders with him creating space for others to run into. This ploy has yielded results for Arsenal in the recent past as well.

Mesut Ozil, 26, the World Cup winner with Germany came back after last weekend after being out for three months with injury. He was questioned about his game as to how he creates so many chances for his colleagues to scores. "Before you get the ball, you think about where your team-mates and the opposition are likely to be", was Ozil's precise answer. The same way in surgical precision he finds spaces in the opposition defense from where he is able to pass a through ball time and again for the strikers to pounce on and score.

Arsenal will travel to Manchester City this weekend in a game that can have major ramifications not only for the title race but also for the battle for the top four positions in the league table.

To contact the author of this article email a.biswas@IBTimes.com.au

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