Gunners bench Arsene Wenger

Olivier Giroud was on the verge of being left out of the Arsenal squad which traveled to Hull City on Wednesday.

The French striker ended a barren spell of nearly two months without goal by scoring twice at the KC stadium as Arsenal progressed to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

However, Giroud had an excuse to not even play on Wednesday night after witnessing the birth of his second child less than 24 hours before kick-off.

According to Wenger, the club was forced to make a late decision over whether to leave out the man who went on to net a decisive brace against Steve Bruce’s side.

“I was tempted [to] do that [leave Giroud out of the squad]. I think in the end you make a decision and you hope it is the right one.” the Arsenal boss said

“I made the decision to play him and he wants to always play and all the other players want to play and that is quite normal.

“People are sometimes surprised that players want to play [after their wife has a baby]. Believe me, you don’t play at that level if you don’t want to play.”

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