In their first game of 2017, Arsenal hosted and beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium. Olivier Giroud and Alex Iwobi scored, with the Gunners moving into third. However, the game will be remembered for one thing only: Giroud’s scorpion kick goal.
The Frenchman surprisingly scored from a scorpion kick to break the deadlock, with fans hailing his strike as the best this season. Comparison to Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s similar effort was inevitable, sparking a debate as to which was better.
Several hilarious Internet jokes and trolls followed, as a result. Many looked to put down Mkhitaryan’s goal, hailing Giroud’s strike as an upgrade – a far better effort.
Your scorpion vs the scorpion she tells you not to worry about pic.twitter.com/pnog0H80oq
— Premier League (@EPLBible) January 1, 2017
Yep.. pic.twitter.com/FSRieHhBBU
— BenchWarmers (@BeWarmers) January 1, 2017
Believe the hype. pic.twitter.com/WLAakwsN22
— Jas (@JasAFC) January 1, 2017
One Man United fan, though, looked to bring Gooners back down to earth with a lesson in history. She basically reopened the “how many Champions League titles have you won” argument.
United fans: that night in Moscow
— Lisa Johnson (@girlmanutd) January 1, 2017
Liverpool fans: That night in Istanbul
Chelsea fans: That night in Munich
Arsenal fans: Giroud>Mkhitaryan
Then there was this unrelated, yet still humorous observation. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic being the king of acrobatic goals, Big Sport concluded that the Swede must be fuming that he is yet to score a scorpion kick goal in England.
Zlatan sat at home watching everyone score scorpion kicks: pic.twitter.com/hM44JCbU1d
— BigSport (@BigSportGB) January 1, 2017
And then there was this last observation: the fact that Mathieu Flamini did the dab seconds before Giroud’s strike found the back of the net. Did the former Arsenal man know it was going in?
Wonderful dab from Flamini in a premature celebration of Giroud's beautiful goal. pic.twitter.com/g723Q0C1T2
— Coral (@Coral) January 1, 2017