Arsene Wenger praises ‘perfect’ Arsenal and Olivier Giroud

Giroud has been back in since then and he was the hat-trick hero of the club’s 3-0 win at Olympiakos on Wednesday night which carried them into the Champions League last 16.

With Olivier Giroud scoring a hat-trick in Athens, Arsenal secured qualification as runners-up to Bayern Munich in Group F to extend the club’s record of progressing to the knock-out stages for a sixteenth successive campaign. We had the chance to prove to everyone we have the qualities of being a top team in the Champions League.

When asked about Arsenal’s potential interest in Benzema, Wenger told reporters: “I just said that Olivier Giroud is a great striker, so behind that we can not buy Karim Benzema!”.

With a full strength squad, it’s doubtful that the forward would become a regular in the first-team XI but his contributions of late certainly indicate he has what it takes to be called upon when necessary. We needed something special and when you deliver something special it can create positive memories for the rest of the season.

That sounds like Le Prof is confident that we will maintain the habit, and is trying to remind the players that we have usually had some fantastic results in away games in the past which have ensured we get through the Group Stages.

Yes, certainly because we needed a flawless performance to score without conceding. “It’s the Champions League, so whoever you get in the draw is going to be hard because you’ve seen teams struggle when they should go through and should be winning”.

Giroud admitted it was a mixture of joy and relief for Arsenal after their Champions League heroics.

Arsenal could now face Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit Saint Petersburg, Manchester United’s conquerors Wolfsburg or the Spanish trio of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in the next round.

“We never give up and you should have seen them buzzing right at the end in the dressing room”.

Giroud’s response has drawn praise from Flamini, who says competition for places is a fact of life at a big club.

“We were so much out of it that I put all my focus on staying in”. Not many people gave us a chance.

Asked if there was any team that Arsenal wanted to avoid, Walcott said: “I’m sure none of them would like to play us after that result”.

Arsenal are used to making their lives hard in Europe, but instead of their seemingly annual heroic failure, this time they – inspired by Giroud, a man blamed for previous exits – were faultless.