Giroud Header Seals Arsenal Win in Season-Opening Thriller

Previewing Friday night's Premier League opener against Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium, Robson told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast: "The way Arsenal are going to play with this 3-4-3 system, Ozil and Sanchez would be absolutely ideal for it".

Substitute Aaron Ramsey rifled home the key goal to bring Arsenal level before Giroud - introduced alongside the Wales worldwide - headed in an 85th-minute victor to settle a breathless encounter in Arsenal's favour.

Arsenal's new signing Alexandre Lacazette scored in just 94 seconds to give Arsenal an early lead but Leicester responded in best way as Shinji Okazaki scored the equalising goal couple of minutes later and soon Jamie Vardy gave Leicester the lead.

Vardy made the most of some really poor zonal marking by Arsenal which allowed him to head in the ball behind Petr Cech on a corner by Riyad Mahrez.

Substitute Ramsey smashed in an angled drive - from a corner which was won after Mesut Ozil handled in the build-up - before Giroud showed athleticism and strength to meet Granit Xhaka's corner.

The France global joined the Gunners for a club-record fee, believed to be around £46.5m, after penning a five-year deal from Lyon at the start of the ongoing transfer period.

Wenger revealed after Friday's win that Giroud, who has scored 97 goals in 231 appearances since joining from Montpellier in 2012, could have left the Gunners this summer. "We had some avoidable goals which we conceded and overall we have to work on that", Wenger said after the victory.

The 26-year-old striker, who signed for a club-record €53 million in July, had previously spent his entire career with Lyon, his hometown club.

The Serie A side have now said they will not return with an improvement on the offer that was rejected and, while he remains a Leicester player, Shakespeare is more than happy to utilise the 2016 PFA Player of the Year. But I don't want him to go and in the end he chose to stay and it was one of the days of recent weeks for me because I know how important he is.

So tonight should be a formality for Arsene Wenger's side and during Thursday's press conference the Frenchman said the squad "looked good" after its pre-season workout.

There was still plenty to do, but somehow Lacazette found the pace and the direction to plant a header into the bottom corner, with not even two minutes showing up yet on the clock.

The first match of the 2017-2018 season in the Premier League was 100% successful.

The joy did not last long, however.

And the mood ebbed and flowed inside the Emirates - with some of the familiar grumblings of discontent evident.

On resumption, Vardy restored the Foxes' lead just after 11 minutes of play.

Arsenal pushed for an equaliser and were rewarded in the 83rd minute, as Aaron Ramsey controlled well and fired past Schmeichel from close range.