Arsenal striker Lukas Podolski has emerged from a long goalless drought for his loan side Inter Milan. In typical Podolski fashion it was a thunderous strike from the edge of the box that stunned the keeper and helped to seal a 2-1 victory over Udinese.
The goal was well timed, just two days ago the Inter Manager, Roberto Mancini, revealed that the 29-year old wants to return to north London at the end of the season, rather than staying in Milan. An ambitious target to say the least, particularly in lieu of Arsenal’s recent form, the congestion for places up front and Arsene Wenger’s reluctance to play the striker towards the end of last year.
At the time of Mancini’s comments Podolski had failed to net a single goal for Inter. Achieving only a 33% shot accuracy over 12 appearances, the on-loan out-of-sorts forward had none of the 11 chances he created converted into goals by teammates. Unsurprisingly, he was also voted Serie A’s second worst signing of the year in a recent poll conducted by Italy’s biggest sports newspaper, Gazetta dello Sport (Losing the honour to A.C. Milan’s troubled winger, Alessio Cerci).
He also recently hit back at the Italian press in an interview for FIFA.com, blasting the media: “Should I just dig myself into the ground and give up playing football?”
Not the words of a man content with his situation.
Lukas Podolski has many qualities, least of which are power and striking ability. He is a World Cup winner and has scored an incredible goal every 100 minutes for Arsenal (better than any other current player). His defensive discipline and inability to play in formation are just some of his noticeable weaknesses. However, his recent form and struggle to find goals is what has led to serious speculation that he may not have a future at Arsenal. Perhaps tonight’s goal is the catalyst Podolski needs to show the world, most of all Wenger, that no one should start digging the grave on his career just yet.
