LONDON -- Arsene Wenger praised Olivier Giroud's mentality as "a fighter" after the striker scored a later winner in Arsenal's 1-0 victory over West Brom on Monday.
Giroud was given a rare start up front and responded by heading in a cross from Mesut Ozil in the 86th minute after West Brom had frustrated the Gunners for most of the afternoon.
It was Giroud's first Premier League start of the season after seeing Alexis Sanchez take over the role as central striker for the Gunners, but his fourth league goal after making an impact off the bench in previous games.
And while Giroud and the rest of Arsenal's attack struggled to create chances for the opening 85 minutes despite dominating possession, Wenger agreed that the France striker proved a point with his late goal.
"He always makes a point when he comes on, because he's scored many times when he's come on," Wenger said. "He has qualities in our squad that are needed and that the other players have not. And he is a fighter as well, Olivier, he has a fantastic mentality.
"It has been very frustrating for him. Because he didn't always play. And when he played well, I didn't always play him in the next game. But I think we have an honest relationship, I have a big respect for him. And he knows that he was not always playing, and despite that he kept a strong motivation level.
"Our job when you're a football player, you have to be always ready. That's part of the job. And when you're selected, it's fantastic. When you're not selected, you have to be always ready. And the players are always ready, when they get their chance, they are there."
Wenger said he opted to start Giroud because he expected West Brom to drop back and defend deeply and wanted an aerial threat in the box. It paid off in the end as Giroud held off Gareth McAuley to nod the ball over goalkeeper Ben Foster, who had made a string of saves to keep Arsenal at bay.
"We kept going and in the end, when we couldn't make a the difference on the ground we did it in the air with maybe the only player in our team who can do that," Wenger said.
West Brom manager Tony Pulis said Giroud had pinned down McAuley in order to get to ball first, but called that "clever play" rather than a foul.
"Gareth's got pinned by Giroud, and you can't allow him to do that. Because he's such a strong player, physically strong. He's excellent in the air. He's un-typical from what Arsene wants in a lot of respects, but he's won them three points today," Pulis said.
"He's actually pinned him, he's grabbed him just before the cross comes in, he didn't let Gareth go. [Gareth] got caught flat. If he makes one step in front, then Giroud can't pin him. But Gareth's just stood his ground and tried to wrestle with him, and Giroud was just too strong for him. It's clever play, no complaints."
The win returned Arsenal to winning ways after consecutive losses to Everton and Manchester City left them nine points behind leaders Chelsea. But Wenger said the late winner was a display of the kind of resilience Arsenal will need to get back in the title chase.
"At the moment, there's quite a big distance between us and Chelsea and we will need a special resilience to come back," he said. "But I hope that the other teams will have as well their moments of weakness and we can only take advantage of it if we continue like that."
Wenger also played down a heated argument between Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Paulista and teammate Lucas Perez in the tunnel after the game, saying it was nothing serious.
"I don't know what it's about, I didn't see it. But they have a South American temper, and Spanish, so that can sometimes happen," Wenger said. "I don't think believe that anything bad happened. They are two good friends, very close to each other. So that is already forgotten now."