Olivier Giroud
Olivier Giroud was on target in the 2-1 loss to Napoli. [Reuters]

Arsenal drew their opening game of the Emirates Cup thanks to a last gasp equaliser from defender Laurent Koscielny.

First half goals from Lorenzo Insigne and Goran Pandev had put the Italians in control of the game, but a spectacular goal from Oliver Giroud and a late header from Koscielny meant the points were shared.

"It was a good game, played at a good pace and against a good side," declared Wenger "They finished second last year and they are a good counter attacking side.

"During the 90 minutes we played well but it took some time to adjust offensively. To come back to 2-2 was very interesting for us."

It was Napoli who carved out the majority of the chances in the first half as Rafa Benitez's side chose to play a counter attacking style of football that caused Arsenal all sorts of problems.

Napoli opened the scoring after just six minutes when a straight forward ball through the middle was misjudged by Carl Jenkinson and and Insigne pounced on the right-back's mistake to coolly slot the ball past a helpless Lukasz Fabianski.

Arsenal had a chance to equalise in the 18th minute after they were awarded a soft penalty as Kieran Gibbs went down under an aerial challenge from Valon Behrami.

Lukasz Podolski tried to roll the ball past Pepe Reina but the former Liverpool goalkeeper went the right way and pulled off a straightforward save.

Napoli then doubled their lead on the half hour mark after playmaker Marek Hamsik was allowed to bring the ball to the edge of the Arsenal area without being challenged.

His pass found Goran Pandev who went round the keeper before cutting back inside and cleverly finishing with a number of Arsenal defenders getting back on the line.

There were a raft of changes in the second half and it was not until the introduction of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that Arsenal began to get a grip on the game.

WIth the influentual Hamsik substituted, Arsenal were finally able to gain some momentum as a host of half chances went begging.

Then in the 72nd minute Giroud would have a header superbly saved by Reina, but from the resulting corner the French striker would pull off a superb bicycle kick that would deflect off Bacary Sagna into the back of the net.

Arsenal continued to pile players forward in the hope of an equaliser and with three minutes remaining would draw level thanks to Koscielny.

Once again it was a superb save from Reina which this time looped in the air and without being properly cleared it found its way to the French defender who nodded home the rebound.

Arsenal kept pushing forward in the search of a winner and despite some good work from subsititue Chuba Akpom who won a late free-kick in a dangerous area, the resulting effort was blocked and the points were shared.