Olivier Giroud has played down the extent of his ankle injury telling French television he hopes to be fit for Wednesday’s Champions League second-leg qualifier against Besiktas.

The striker was Arsenal’s hero against Everton when he came off the bench at half time to score a fine headed equaliser although his evening ended on a sour note when an injury-time Sylvain Distin clearance appeared to jar his ankle.

Speaking to Telefoot after the game, Giroud was calm about the situation stating: “I hope to be on the field Wednesday.”

With Alexis Sanchez still finding his feet in English football and Yaya Sanogo struggling with his own injury problems you suspect Arsene Wenger will be very eager to have his main attacker available for such a crunch tie. Let’s hope he doesn’t join Mikel Arteta on in the banjaxed ankle field hospital we’ve set up at London Colney.

In other news, Per Mertesacker says it was important to get 90 minutes under his belt against Everton and believes a draw was a great result given the way his teammates fought back from the brink of defeat.

The German World Cup winner replaced Laurent Koscielny in Arsene Wenger’s starting line-up and was handed the captain’s armband in Mikel Arteta’s absence as he made a dramatic return to first team action.

Speaking to Arsenal Player after the 2-2 draw the BFG said he and compatriot Mesut Ozil, who also completed the full game, were tired but pleased.

“At this stage of the season it was a good game. Now we have one game under our belts, we feel a bit tired but it’s vital for us.

“We need to get in our rhythm and it took a while at the start but I think we responded fantastically as a team in the second half.

“Overall we created much more in the second half and put the pressure on them all the time. That was very important for us, it doesn’t feel like a win but we showed great team spirit.

“It’s a great result for us. Last year we lost 3-0 and they were absolutely outstanding. We learnt a bit from that but in the first half our defensive movements let us down and we were a bit unfortunate with a few decisions but we left everything behind us and thought we have to play until the end.”