Olivier Giroud: Experience helped Arsenal salvage point against Paris St Germain

Arsene Wenger’s men had to come from a goal down to earn a point against the Ligue 1 champions after falling behind to Edinson Cavani’s opener after just 42 seconds.

However, they failed to take advantage of a number of other chances, and were made to pay when Alexis Sanchez fired home a 77th-minute equaliser.

Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has blamed Paris St Germain midfielder Marco Verratti for tricking the referee after they were both sent off.

But of greater significance to Wenger, in addition to a positive result from a tough opening away trip, was the performance of his goalkeeper.

Deep into added-on time, both teams were reduced to 10 men after Marco Verratti and Giroud picked up second yellow cards for an off-the-ball incident before PSG very almost won it with the last action of the game as Marquinhos headed wide from close range. You can not keep two world-class goalkeepers that don’t get games.

“We started this game with the goal in the first minute but we tried to keep going and keep playing our game”, he said. “We have a rule that the keepers know”, Wenger added. “He’s a real football man who has given some stability to Hull and they are hard to beat”, said Wenger. They put us under a lot of pressure physically, but even in the first half I thought we could be risky.

“I would not like to answer that question [if Ospina will keep the Champions League role] tonight, because we can always change our mind”. It’s down to performances.

PSG s inability to convert their chances meant the Gunners remained in the game, and Ospina played his part by making decisive interventions in front of Cavani and Di Maria in the second half.

Wenger insists Xhaka has simply been adapting to English football as he faces stiff competition for a first-team place, but thinks he will thrive as a box-to-box player and establish himself as a key starter at the Emirates Stadium.

“Maybe in the final third we didn’t find the good ball to score, but we came back”. He’d scored a great goal at the start.

However, Wenger has revealed that Walcott was forced to miss the match as he was in fact left back in North London after picking up a knee injury – but thankfully the Frenchman also says the problem is “very short term”.