Arsenal's Olivier Giroud says his scorpion kick should have beaten Andy Carroll to January goal of month

Olivier Giroud is convinced he, not Andy Carroll, should have won January’s goal of the month competition for a strike that will “leave a mark on history”.

The Arsenal striker’s scorpion kick against Crystal Palace on January 1 seemed an almost certain winner of Goal of the Season at the time only for West Ham target man Carroll to go better a fortnight later against the same opposition.

Carroll’s spectacular bicycle kick would beat the scorpion duo of Giroud and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the goalscoring prize but the French international believes posterity will prove him right.

“I don’t want to big myself up, but goals like mine leave a mark on history because they’re rare,” Giroud told Le Journal du Dimanche. “There’s been [PSG striker] Charles Edouard Coridon and Zlatan Ibrahimovic before me. Carroll’s goal is magnificent, but maybe people won’t remember it in two years’ time.

“Mine, yes. It’s like Zlatan’s improbable overhead kick against England or Van Basten’s volley, goals I would have liked to score.”

Unsurprisingly the French striker won Arsenal’s own poll for their goal of the month in January, though Lucas Perez’s spectacular volley against Bournemouth, teed up by Giroud, did gain 12 per cent of votes.