Chelsea confident Olivier Giroud will remain at the club beyond January

[ASFN Admin]

Chelsea are confident they can hang on to Olivier Giroud in January and continue to show the striker that he will play enough to hold on to his place in the France squad for next summer’s European Championships. Giroud revealed that his preference would be to remain at Stamford Bridge, but admitted he needed to play more regularly, following his four-goal performance against Sevilla in the Champions League. The 34-year-old has started all of Chelsea’s last three Premier League games, since the Sevilla match, scoring in the victory against Leeds United and Tuesday night’s defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Giroud’s goal against Wolves sent him joint top of Chelsea’s scoring charts, alongside summer signing Timo Werner, with eight goals. Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard will have to rotate his squad over Chelsea’s busy Christmas schedule, meaning Tammy Abraham could replace Giroud at some stage or Werner could return to the middle of the front three. But Lampard has now demonstrated that Giroud will play a key part in the season and can be confident of playing enough to keep hold of his France place ahead of next summer’s Euros. France manager Didier Deschamps had told Giroud that he will have to look to leave Chelsea or risk losing his place in the national team if he does not play regularly, but the former Arsenal man has since been a regular.

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