There was not much doubt that Olivier Giroud could well have helped Arsenal in the match against Burnley – his big bustling presence was exactly the sort of thing that was needed against a team of solid defenders for whom getting a 0-0 draw was the height of their ambition from the off.

Unfortunately Olivier was still not 100% recovered from the toe injury that has kept him out for a couple of games – although the good news is he will miss this coming week’s French internationals, and should be available when football proper resumes after the interlull.

Even more unfortunately Perez was also ruled out with a knee injury, and Chuba Akpom is out with a back injury. I am not sure if it is good or bad news that neither player is currently showing an anticipated return date. Danny Welbeck is of course still out and won’t be seen until next year – although the current prognosis is a lot earlier than at first feared.

As for Sanogo, he remains a mystery. He was hardly seen in the pre-season, and certainly wasn’t sold – and he is indeed registered as part of the squad. We await developments.

This injury crisis seems to be a typical Arsenal problem (although in reality it affects other clubs too). Suddenly all the players in a particular position are all out at once. At the start of the season we had this with central defenders, now it is centre forwards.

Of course there is a limit as to how many players a club can have in a specific position and the fact that virtually our entire centre forward compliment is out all at the same time has to be just one of those quirks of fate. Contrary to what Stewart Robson and others suggest Arsenal do not always get more injuries than anyone else. We get a lot, because we play fast flowing football, and players of that ilk get injured more frequently, but we are rarely at the top of the injury league table.

Indeed, quite probably within a couple of weeks we’ll once again have a choice of Alexis, Giroud, Perez, Theo and Akpom all vying for the centre forward spot.

But when that happens what are Giroud’s chances of playing again for Arsenal?

Certainly having seen this level of injury hitting one position it would seem risky to reduce the number of players further. On the other hand, if Giroud is going to play backup to Alexis at centre forward all season he is not going to get many games – for unlike Alexis it is hard to see where else he could play on the pitch.

However I think it is Arsene Wenger’s view that Giroud should certainly be part of the squad this season, for two particular reasons.

One I have already mentioned – the game against Burnley was one which was ideally suited for a forward line of Alexis on one wing, Theo on the other and Giroud in the middle, with Ozil behind.

Iwobi didn’t really have the guile and push to take on defenders of the type we saw on Sunday, playing a team that even at home will happily go with just 40% possession waiting for the occasional chance to rush up the field and nick a goal.

Indeed the fact that Burnley have only scored 5 this season (fewer than anyone else other than Stoke with the same number of goals) shows exactly how they work. In such circumstances while Arsenal would never lump the ball into the box in the hope of it finding Giroud’s head, an attack combining a big man with two fast runners moving in from the sides, would have caused more problems.

We scored three against Chelsea not just because they are a modest team, but because they thought they could play football against Arsenal and pass their way through our lines. For this Alexis at centre forward is fine running at speed on the counter. Against Stoke, Bradford, Sunderland and the like, Giroud is a better option since we are mostly camped in the opposition’s half.

Plus, as the current injury crisis shows, we need cover.

And there is a further reason to retain Olivier. There are games in which it is clearly right to play Alexis as the centre forward. But we can never say that this will always work. Against some eleven man defences he can become frustrated and his shots start to go a little astray.

Giroud on the bench however gives us a total change of approach. If with 20 minutes to go it is still all square, then the answer surely is to put Alexis on the wing and bring on Olivier as the sub. The whole defence of the opposition would then have to rethink itself, and as defenders start to get a little tired near the end of the game, that can be exactly the sort of situation that Giroud can exploit.

So I see Giroud being an important member of the squad this season, and I suspect his place will only be completely under threat as and when Danny Welbeck comes back to full fitness. If he does get to that state, and assuming that Peres and Akpom not only recover but also show their potential, then I think we might see Giroud move on in the summer of 2017.

But for this season, I think he will soon be back, and battling.