Wenger - Giroud was at the top level

Arsene Wenger has praised Olivier Giroud's man-of-the-match performance against Manchester City on Sunday.

The France striker powered a header past Joe Hart in the first half before he laid the ball off for Alexis to equalise after the interval, securing a valuable point for Arsenal.

After a tough four months, Giroud now has a goal and two assists in his last two appearances, and Wenger is delighted that the 29-year-old has been able to repay his faith.

“Olivier Giroud was questioned recently and I’m happy I kept confidence in him because I thought he had a top-level performance,” the manager told Arsenal Player. “He was fighting, he had control of the ball, he was finishing and he gave an assist.

“We showed a lot of character and the intensity of the game was very high," he added. "We dealt well with what was thrown at us and Manchester City looked like they were doing absolutely everything to win the game. They are difficult to beat and we have shown again that we can get results against top teams.

“The fact we came back twice each time we were down, we looked like we had the response to score. I think we could have won the game in the end. Overall, it is a positive result.”