[VIDEO] Giroud & Rosicky See Off Everton

Arsenal returned to third place in the Barclays Premier League after goals from Olivier Giroud and Tomas Rosicky earned them a 2-0 win over Everton at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Giroud turned in a volley from Mesut Ozil’s corner in the 39th minute before Rosicky made sure of the points with a late deflected effort.

Romelu Lukaku and Aaron Lennon went closest for Everton, who have now won just one of their last 11 league matches, but both were denied by good saves from David Ospina.

While the result continues Everton’s poor run of form, it is the ideal response for Arsenal following their disappointing Champions League defeat to Monaco in midweek.

Per Mertesacker paid the price for that performance as he was replaced by Gabriel Paulista, who made his first Premier League start.

The Brazilian grew in confidence as the game progressed but looked nervy at times in the first half and was nearly caught out in the 17th minute when he hesitated on the ball.

Lukaku took advantage to nick it away from him, but, fortunately for Gabriel, his keeper was more decisive and did well to clear his lines.

It took Arsenal until the half-hour mark to create their first chance as Alexis Sanchez clipped in a cross from the left and Giroud got ahead of Phil Jagielka, but headed wide.

Gabriel then made a superbly-timed sliding tackle to halt Lukaku as he charged into the box.

The deadlock was broken not long afterwards as Ozil whipped in a corner from the right and Giroud swept a volley into the far corner.

Olivier Giroud celebrates giving Arsenal the lead

Everton made a positive start to the second half and Gareth Barry sent an acrobatic volley over the bar.

Giroud saw a close-range effort blocked by Jagielka at the other end before Santi Cazorla fired over the bar after a clever one-two with Giroud.

Ospina then produced a fantastic reflex save to turn over Lukaku’s near-post drive and got down well to save from Aaron Lennon’s low shot.

Everton pushed with more purpose as the game wore on but were beaten when Rosicky’s shot deflected off Jagielka and flew past Tim Howard.

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