Olivier Giroud masterminds Chelsea’s winning goal with Christian Pulisic, dedicates it to N’Golo Kanté

Olivier Giroud cannot stop scoring — which really shouldn’t be a surprise for a man with over 250 career goals for club and country combined, but the narrative in the last few years has been all about the things he brings to a team other than goals, which is normally the one thing anyone wants from a striker. Well, now, he’s doing both for Chelsea, and at the age 33 just to make that even more remarkable.

Yesterday’s goal, the only goal of the game, was his sixth in his last eight Premier League starts, stretching back to before the lockdown. He has gone from a literal afterthought in the first-half of the season (he didn’t even make the bench in December-January), to the team’s far and away most dangerous striker since February. With any luck, he’ll get three more goals this season — at least four games in all competitions to do so! — to continue an impressive twelve-season streak of scoring in double digits.

In classic Giroud fashion, he scored the winner yesterday with his head, from a cross delivered perfectly by one of the other standout players of Chelsea’s Project Restart, Christian Pulisic. While Chelsea’s gameplan clearly involved tons of wing-play and a wide variety of crosses from a wide variety of players, Chelsea’s tunnel cam video shows that Giroud had specifically talked to Pulisic about the type of service he’d like to receive.

Ask, and ye shall receive!

So, the masterplan worked.

And the celebration topped it off.

There was the two-handed shove of Jorginho, the hug with Pulisic and Jorginho, and then a dedication to the one and only N’Golo Kanté, who continues to miss time with his latest injury. Giroud appeared to mime writing something on his hand, which turns out was meant to represent him playing a game on his phone.

“No, it was just ... I play Scrabble with N’Golo Kanté, you know ...”

-Olivier Giroud; source: Sky via Football Daily

It’s unclear how many points Giroud scored with his latest word, but his latest goal us all three, and that’s all that mattered in the end.

Triple word score, baby!