Gunners finished the campaign in fourth place.
Arsenal front man Olivier Giroud has claimed that the north London club were not mature enough to win the Premier League last season, according to reports on ESPN.
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The Gunners led the Premier League for the majority of the first half of the campaign, only to then lose form and focus after Christmas, before then eventually managing to finish in fourth place.
However, the France international has now blamed the club’s collapse on a combination of the loss of a number of key players to injuries halfway through the season, as well as inexperience, for the north Londoners’ subsequent collapse in the league.
“We were ahead for a good half of the season, and then we cracked,” said Giroud.
“We lacked maturity; we had a lot of injuries at a tricky time. Above all, we weren’t able to adapt to the big teams, and we often went off the rails in big games. We have to improve in those matches, perhaps we have to try to play less. But it’s hard with the playing philosophy we have.”
However, Giroud does say that Arsenal’s FA Cup final win over Hull City at Wembley Stadium earlier this month when the Gunners recovered from an early 2-0 deficit to eventually triumph 3-2 will stand the club in good stead going into the new campaign.
“The Cup, it’s not nothing in England,” the striker, who signed from Montpellier in 2012, said. “Especially given the scenario of the final. There was a lot of expectation, great fervour among the supporters. It reminded me of what I had when Montpellier won the title.”
Giroud, 27, managed to register 16 goals and 9 assists in total in his 36 Premier League matches last season.
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