Arsene Wenger defends Olivier Giroud amid massive criticism from Thierry Henry

Arsene Wenger has blasted club legend Thierry Henry for criticising Olivier Giroud. The former Gunners striker had insisted that Arsenal cannot win the title with Giroud on top and that they needed four more players in the summer, including a top notch player up front to challenge for the league.

The north London club are on a brilliant run of nine unbeaten games in the league and had they displayed the same form in the first half of the season, they would be much closer to the Blues in terms of league points.

Arsene Wenger has thereby come out and defended Giroud to the hilt, stating that Henry's criticism was unwarranted and that he believes that the Frenchman has done enough to be part of the Arsenal squad.

The striker was out for more than three months with a broken foot but has been in brilliant form since coming back and has scored and assisted more than 20 goals this season.

"I can accept that's an opinion, but the comment on Giroud was a bit more wrong - especially because I heard the same thing being said about Nicolas Anelka, about Thierry Henry himself and about Robin van Persie. And they all became world class players," Wenger said.

"I think he (Henry) is wrong. He's paid for that. We know all the system now of the modern media, especially on TV. I know how it works - they push you to be controversial because they give you a lot of money.

"You judge your team on the global achievement of the team. What I know is Giroud works very hard for the team and has fantastic mentality and if the team does well it is down to him and if on top of that he scores 20 or more goals he has done his job," he concluded.