Giroud is so good we don’t need Benzema – Arsene Wenger

“If you look at the number of goals he has scored you have to give him credit”.

The first great chance to open the scoring fell to the Arsenal, when Olivier Giroud delivered a terrific pass to Joel Campbell who pulled the ball back to Mathieu Flamini, but the Frenchman hadn’t got enough time to shoot the ball in the proper way and he put the ball over the crossbar.

The North London outfit traveled to Greece knowing that they would have to do better than Olympiakos’ 3-2 win at the Emirates earlier on in the season but Olivier Giroud gave the Greek champions no chance as his first ever Arsenal hat-trick put them through 3-0.

“It is tough competition up front and Olivier is responding very well because he is playing better and better”.

Walcott recently made his return to action from a calf injury and played 72 minutes as Arsenal recorded a memorable 3-0 win over Olympiacos to reach the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Arsène Wenger has praised Olivier Giroud for reacting to being criticised and dropped by showing he is “among the best strikers in Europe”. “That is part of the game and if you want to play at a big club, you have that competition”.

“You have to cope in our game, you are questioned and in his job, centre-forward, you are questioned even more”.

Former Montpellier striker Giroud has come in for criticism from some quarters for his sometimes erratic finishing, which many believe prevents him from being considered in the top pantheon of modern strikers.

Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Aston Villa but Mikel Arteta (calf) and Alexis Sanchez (hamstring) are among seven first-team players still unavailable.

Wenger also refuted newspaper claims he was set to launch a January move for Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama, despite the fact he now has four players in that position out injured – saying: “I rate the player but we are not on the case”. The club cannot face either Chelsea, Manchester City or Bayern Munich but could play Zenit St Petersburg or VfL Wolfsburg.