Football
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Arsene Wenger: Arsenal getting good at producing late comebacks

Arsene Wenger acknowledges comebacks and late goals have almost become an Arsenal speciality this season.

The Gunners came from behind and snatched a last-gasp 2-1 victory to avoid frustration in their FA Cup third-round tie at Championship side Preston North End on Saturday.

That came after they beat West Bromwich Albion with a late winner and claimed a dramatic last-minute 3-3 draw at Bournemouth over the Christmas period. There were also late shows against Southampton, Burnley, Sunderland and Manchester United earlier in the campaign.

Again it was Olivier Giroud who came to the rescue on Saturday, following up his late heroics against West Brom and Bournemouth with a deflected 89th-minute effort -- his fourth goal in successive games -- to see off battling Preston.

Wenger said: "I think since the start of the season we have had many, many, many comebacks and many goals in the final minutes.

"But I would first like to congratulate Preston for the quality of their game, especially in the first half where we were outpaced and they played with desire, enthusiasm and quality and they gave us many problems -- full commitment for 90 minutes. It was a great cup tie and we needed to dig deep to win the game.''

Arsenal, who were without Petr Cech, Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Hector Bellerin, were outplayed for much of the first half with Preston looking more like the Premier League team.

The hosts created a number of chances and were unfortunate not to lead by more than Callum Robinson's seventh-minute opener at half-time.

But Wenger's men, slow and error-prone before the break, played with much more purpose after the restart and quickly equalised with a fine Aaron Ramsey strike.

The visitors dominated thereafter but Preston dug in and looked on course for a replay until stand-in captain Giroud pounced following a Lucas Perez backheel.

Wenger, who has never lost a third-round tie in 20 years in charge of Arsenal, said: "Of course, I didn't want to go home and be out of the FA Cup. Second half it was all us but they continued to defend well and we needed to be patient and create something special. We did that in the end.''

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