Olivier Giroud has shown his determination to demonstrate Arsenal were wrong to let him move. Facing Arsenal in the Europa League final gave Giroud inspiration to defeat his former club, in the process scoring once to help his current side lift the trophy.
The Gunners had enabled the World Cup winner to depart back January 2018, together with Giroud winning the FA Cup in his first season at Stamford Bridge before asserting Europa League glory at the next campaign.
Really, the prior Montpellier striker opened the scoring in Baku, together with additional goals from Pedro, and 2 from Eden Hazard, making sure that the Blues won the decoration.
Reflecting on the match a year after case, he advised Chelsea’s official club site: “That final against Arsenal was clearly very unique for me emotionally.
“Along with this, it was just a year later I left. I’ve quite a great deal of friends around, individuals who are employed in the club offices. This was extra motivation for me and that I understood it was likely to be a high-definition game.
“You prepare for the game in a distinctive manner, in another manner, since you know they know you inside out, and they understand that I understand them well also.
“You’ve got to aim for the game but not perform the game before it has happened. You need to believe ahead. I believed that when I’d a one-on-one with Petr Cech, who knows me quite nicely, or a punishment, I would need to shoot there rather than somewhere else.
“I understood he knew me quite well. I was going to play with my friend Laurent Koscielny, that has also understood me inside-out for many years since we began together at Tours in 2008.
“It was a really special moment but it was just like an extra inspiration for me since I wanted to reveal that I had some energy in me plus a few good years left in me.
“I felt, I got help and that I won the punishment therefore quite a great deal of great things occurred there for me since I had been involved three goals from those four which we scored.
“It was just like in fantasy because I could not have imagined it would go well, so flawlessly for us. I wanted to win trophies at Chelsea – that is why I was more inspired that night – but winning against the old club such as that…”
In addition to scoring at the closing, Giroud played a huge role for then-manager Maurizio Sarri at Europe as he awakened a hat-trick from the last-16 second-leg assembly with Dynamo Kyiv.
Talking about that remarkable individual operation, he added: “Following the game, I moved into the changing room holding the ball, and somebody mentioned’ideal hat-trick!’
“I did not understand that idiom but I’d scored together with my right foot, along with my left foot, and using a header so it was a wonderful thing to say. I retained the ball and everybody congratulated me to get it was a fantastic performance and a fantastic memory.
“It was amazing to get a striker for me personally to score a hat-trick from Dynamo Kyiv however you have not won anything in the point and the entire purpose of this contest is to win the trophy in the ending.
“It is all about winning. That final was even more specific because it was against Arsenal, and I moved out there to win the trophy.”
