Tomas Rosicky scored Arsenal’s second as they eased to victory over Everton © Getty Images
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger welcomed a positive response to midweek European misery as his team beat Everton 2-0 at Emirates Stadium.
Goals from Olivier Giroud and Tomas Rosicky saw the home side to a solid victory and three important points in the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League.
Arsenal’s campaign against the continent’s elite this season might not last much longer, after a first-leg 3-1 defeat to Monaco in North London on Wednesday.
But Wenger was keen to move on from that dismal evening in the last 16 and to show Arsenal have more about them than they displayed against his former club.
Giroud had as grim a night as anybody against Monaco, and it cheered Wenger that he proved a constant nuisance to Everton.
“Yes, he responded well,” Wenger told BT Sport. “The whole team produced a focused performance and a mental victory after what happened to us on Wednesday night. It was quite a shock.
“It’s always interesting to see how the team responds to that and we did that well.
“We were highly focused on our defensive performance today because we were a bit easy on that front on Wednesday night.”
Arsenal stand third in the Premier League now, victory lifting them back above Manchester United and keeping in-form Liverpool at arm’s length.
Those three sides could find themselves slugging it out for third and fourth places over the closing weeks of the season.
“It keeps us on a good run in the Premier League,” Wenger said. “It will be very intense and it will be very tight at the end but we know that and that’s why to have that type of focus we had today is very important.”
