Arsene Wenger says he gave Olivier Giroud the opportunity to leave Arsenal this summer, but was happy the striker stayed to deliver the winner in the 4-3 victory over Leicester to open the Premier League season.
The Gunners twice fell behind before Wenger put on Giroud and Aaron Ramey in what turned out to be an inspired double change as both substitutes scored late on.
Giroud knew he would be relegated to a bench role following the signing of Alexandre Lacazette, but he decided to stay and fight for his spot, and Wenger had high praise for his countryman's commitment.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Wenger said of Giroud: "I love the man and the player. He's a fantastic guy and he's committed. He doesn't want to leave and I'm happy he wants to stay.
"At one stage I opened the door for him as I knew I had many strikers, and in the end he decided to stay."
Wenger acknowledged it would be difficult to give playing time to all of his attackers, but was happy with all the contributions on Friday night.
"Going forward and character wise we have been great. We had some avoidable goals which we conceded and overall we have to work on that," he said.
"It's impossible to keep them happy when strikers don't play. We have many games and hopefully I can give games to all the strikers. They all deserve to play."
Olivier Giroud Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Giroud got the winner with an 85th-minute header, and he said afterward that Arsenal never doubted they could come back.
"Obviously I knew that I was going to have a chance so we tried to push," he said. "We kept the faith and kept believing in our game to push hard. We've been courageous to the end and thank God we won the game.
On his super-sub role, he added: "That's a nice start, but obviously I prefer to be on the pitch. Tonight we needed this win and everyone knows the first game is important for the confidence."
Petr Cech has seen better days after conceding three goals, and he said Leicester did well to pounce on Arsenal's errors.
"We started really well and I thought we could stay in control. Then we made mistakes and they punished us," he said. "They had chances and then we had to chase.
"There were difficult moments when we were down and we managed to get out of that and it's great to see."