LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is confident that striker Olivier Giroud can handle the burden of replacing Robin van Persie despite his shocking miss in his side's 0-0 draw with Sunderland at the Emirates yesterday.

The Frenchman, who signed for £12 million from Montpellier in the summer, had a golden chance to earn Arsenal  three points on his Premier League debut but fired wide when one-on-one with Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.


Wenger admits that a lot is expected of the 25-year-old, but feels optimistic that he can score goals in England as he becomes accustomed to the league.


 "That's the burden you face when you take over from Robin van Persie because people are used to seeing him score," Wenger told Sky Sports.


"But he missed some chances as well and I feel Giroud will score goals but he rushed his chance a bit he had more time than he thought he had and I believe in time he will get there. I'm not worried too much about that and I'm sure I'm right."


Wenger hopes the same will be true for all of his new faces, including Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla, whom he feels had a strong outing against Sunderland.


However, Wenger was not satisfied with his team's overall performance and accepts that they will need to improve in the coming weeks.


"They are good players once they are on the pitch they play. We have seen Cazorla today, it doesn't take him six months to adjust to play," he said.


"Sometimes it's a little bit of an easy excuse. I believe our pace in our passing was too slow out from the back - it wasn't sharp enough, we usually do better on that front.


"It was frustrating because we played with the right attitude and the right focus but overall I believe our creative level was not good enough today for different reasons.

"Some was the speed of our passing, some to the quality of our movement but our formation wasn't right - as well, the three strikers didn't work.

"Another reason is that Sunderland defended very well, very deep and very focused highly on defending. As long as you don't score the first goal it’s a different game."


- mD

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