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‘Giroud is one of the few who can do that'

Olivier Giroud underlined his enduring value to our squad with yet another late goal to salvage a point at Southampton.

The France striker rose to head Alexis’ cross past Fraser Forster and take his tally of goals as a substitute to 17 in the Premier League.

Only Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can match that record for a single club - Jermain Defoe has 23 from spells with various sides - and Arsene Wenger believes Giroud has a rare gift.

“He has presence,” the boss told Arsenal.com. “You need it [strength] in the air and he is one of the few in the league who can do that.

“You have to be absolutely in admiration of his mental quality but as well when team has its back to the wall, he’s always got something special to help the team.”

Wenger was both relieved and frustrated at the end of Sunday’s game. Relieved that we didn’t leave St Mary’s empty-handed; frustrated that we didn’t leave with more.

“We could have lost the game and when you cannot win it you don’t lose it,” he said.

“It is a difficult place to come, Southampton are a good side and I felt again we paid a heavy price for a slow start.

“We continued to attack, you could see that, again these kind of teams are difficult to play, but we were relentless and didn’t give up. I think we could have won, but they as well had a few chances on the counter-attack.”

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