5 Truths: Olivier Giroud is still not good enough to be Arsenal's leading man

Let’s not be too uncharitable about this: Giroud did score two lovely goals in Arsenal’s FA Cup quarter-final win over Middlesbrough. First he finished off a brilliant team move which involved all 11 players, tapping home from Kieran Gibbs’ low cross, and then he showed his intelligence to make a run to the near post when Middlesbrough weren’t paying attention from a corner to score with a stunning flicked volley. It was no surprise that Arsene Wenger talked warmly of his striker in his post-match press conference, telling the assembled media: "I believe that he (Giroud) is a different player today than the guy who arrived here. He understands what top-level football demands, works with a great concentration in training and he has improved tremendously on his mobility, his technical quality and of course his body is very strong. He uses it very well."

Giroud has improved under Wenger, but has he improved enough? Goals this season against Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City, twice, insulate him against accusations that he can’t produce on the big occasion but the suspicion remains that the Frenchman does not belong in the elite group of, say, Diego Costa, Daniel Sturridge and Sergio Aguero. For all his improvement, Giroud isn’t even Arsenal’s best forward: that honour falls to Alexis Sanchez, who is a more electric and unpredictable threat when leading the attack. If Arsenal have serious aspirations of challenging for the title next season, Giroud can only be their artillery from the bench – their Edin Dzeko or Loic Remy – not their first option. He is a fantastic Plan B and gives Arsenal a different dimension, but no more than that.

In yesterday’s Truths we documented the notable decline of Cristiano Ronaldo in recent weeks. But where the Real Madrid superstar has tripped up, his eternal rival has sprinted away into the distance. Ronaldo has not scored a single goal in his past three games and has four in 2015; Messi is already on 14 for the calendar year, putting him, in comparative terms, ahead of his own record of 91 strikes in 2012 at the same stage of the season. It seems a long time ago that we were debating his apparent fall-out with coach Luis Enrique and speculating that he could move to Chelsea at the end of the season.

Messi has enjoyed a resurgence in his fortunes that has been matched by Barcelona themselves, with Los Cules winning a club record-equalling 11 games in a row in all competitions. Coach Enrique has, after months of turbulence, found how to extract the very best from Messi, who is not only scoring at a prodigious rate again but has a renewed taste for an assist, with four in his last three games. Messi appears to be almost back at the level which was widely considered his peak: the 2011-12 season under Pep Guardiola, and is summoning a most fearsome response to Ronaldo’s back-to-back Ballon d’Ors.

One of the underrated themes of the season has been Gus Poyet’s brave attempts to blame everyone but himself for Sunderland’s awful campaign. After the 8-0 loss away to Southampton back in October, Poyet was at pains to point out that it was not actually his job to buy players – claiming responsibility for just one set-piece mistake: “the rest, I’m sorry, I’m not going to take.” After a 2-0 defeat to QPR just four days ago, he was pointing the finger at the fans who had been criticising the club’s style of play, angering many supporters in the process. After yet another humiliation – a 2-0 defeat to Bradford in the FA Cup – this time Poyet’s problems lay with the referee and the press, telling the media: "the problem is you (the media) not me. If you write what I say the fans would be on my side." When will Poyet look closer to home for the reasons behind his team’s abject failings?

Nothing could ever top the 4-2 comeback win away at Chelsea in the previous round, but still, Bradford enjoyed another fantastic afternoon in cup competition when removing Sunderland at the fifth-round stage. Lest we forget, Bradford also managed to dump top-flight Wigan and Arsenal out of the League Cup in 2012, before beating Aston Villa in the semi-finals to reach the final against Swansea. Who would rule out a Wembley return for a team who just cannot stop slaying Premier League giants?

All hail Tim Sherwood, Aston Villa's saviour. After coming to the club in their hour of need following Paul Lambert's sacking, Sherwood's messianic genius was felt with his very first bit of club business. With Villa trudging to a 0-0 draw at half-time of their FA Cup fifth-round match against Leicester - a familiar feeling for Villa regulars this season - Sherwood took it upon himself to make a surprise visit to the dressing room to stir the troops. As coach Scott Marshall explained: "He came in and made a couple of points to the lads, a couple of bits and pieces for everyone. I thought the boys delivered that in the second half and were very good. He was there and there was good information to the group, there's a football knowledge there which comes with a lifetime in the game." The fun starts here.