Wenger Heaps Praise on Giroud for Technique on First Goal

Arsene Wenger has praised Olivier Giroud for his goal, which gave Arsenal the lead in the second half.

The Frenchman took the ball down brilliantly with his left foot and powered the ball in with his right, a piece of control, which enthralled the crowd in what was a very placid atmophere at the Emirates.

The goal came after Giroud missed a glorious opportunity to put the Gunners ahead in the first half, as he went one on one with goalkeeper Adrian, only to scuff his shot for the stopper to clear.

The Gunners were punished soon after as West Ham took the lead through Matt Jarvis, who bundled in the ball into the Arsenal net from close range.

However, as has been the scene in recent meetings between the two sides, Arsenal came back from behind to equalise through Lukas Podolski, who finished brilliantly past Adrian to keep the Gunners' hopes of finishing the top four alive.

Giroud scored the second goal soon into the second half and Podolski killed the game off with a belter of a shot in the final stages from a brilliant piece of vision by Aaron Ramsey, who came on as a substitute.

"It was a perfect first touch. You need that if you want to score the goal. What I like is that he used his upper body first to make some space, and despite that he managed to have a great first touch, and after that he finished well," Wenger told www.arsenal.com.

"Olivier is a great guy with a great mentality. He has gone through a difficult period, as you know, and I think it affected his game for a while and his confidence.

" I hope that what happened tonight... you could see that he was refreshed tonight and that he was up for it. At half-time he came in, he was very very down because he missed a great chance in the first half, but he responded very well in the second half because he's mentally a strong guy," he concluded.