It is the second month in a row the winning goal has come from the Champions League and one of two Giroud goals which were nominated in December, along with his opener against Aston Villa.

However, it was the third of his four goals in a dominant performance away at Sevilla which was the overwhelming choice in this month’s voting. It was a classic Giroud goal, too, as his movement in the box got him between the defenders to meet N’Golo Kante’s cross at the near post, before directing a powerful header into the net from a tight angle.

With Giroud’s perfect hat-trick against Sevilla taking more than half of all the votes cast, the Goal of the Month award was almost as comfortable a victory as the one in Spain.

As well as that second header by the Frenchman against Aston Villa, Giroud was also selected ahead of Christian Pulisic finishing off a lightning-quick counter-attack by Mateo Kovacic and Timo Werner to complete the scoring in our 3-1 win over Leeds United.

Our Women’s and Academy sides were also represented in the nominations, by Sam Kerr’s strike against Benfica following a pinpoint through-ball from Guro Reiten, and Jude Soonsup-Bell’s impressive solo effort against Manchester United in the Premier League 2.

Giroud is the fourth different player to win a Chelsea Goal of the Month award this season, joining Reece James (September, v Brighton), Timo Werner (October, v Southampton) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (November, v Rennes).