Olivier Giroud might have been looking forward to an international friendly on Monday night.
A chance to forget about an uneven start to the Premier League season, to improve on his one goal scored so far in 2015/16, and prove that Arsenal can win the title with him as their sole out-and-out striker. But things did not go to plan.
France won 2-1 in the end, but Giroud was poor throughout and booed, jeered and whistled by France supporters in Bordeaux before being replaced by Karim Benzema in the 60th minute.
Karim Benzema, you may remember, was the subject of quite a number of transfer rumours linking him with a move to Arsenal.
Not ideal for Giroud, but manager Didier Deschamps came to his defence: "He also helped during the game," said Deschamps. "He got unlucky on a few chances because the goalkeeper made a great save. He got three clear opportunities.
Giroud comes up disappointingly short
"One was not on target, a header close from the goal-frame. Obviously if he had been more efficient the score would have been much higher
"In his role he made a lot of effort. I always leave a lot of freedom to the three offensive players so he also had to counterbalance.
"Obviously he knows about it. He's the first to be sad about his lack of efficiency.
"But it happens sometimes. If it's not Olivier, it might be Karim [Benzema]. The performance of the entire team remains of a great level."
It was a rare start for Giroud, who was flanked by Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and Lyon's Mathieu Valbuena, but it was Blaise Matuidi who decided the game with both French goals.
Let's all look forward to January, then, when we can enjoy daily updates about a Matuidi moves to Arsenal which never materialises.
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