Speaking as a pundit for BT Sport during Arsenal's 3-0 win over Olympiakos last night, Rio Ferdinand called Laurent Koscielny the best defender in the Premier League.
Koscielny put in a fine performance as the Gunners advanced to the Champions League Last-16, and former Manchester United and England defender Ferdinand was full of praise for the Frenchman afterwards.
"Koscielny for me, when he's on form I think he's the best defender in the league," Ferdinand said.
"[Manchester City's Vincent] Kompany's not fit enough consistently enough and he's turned into a real top class defender."
In the match in Athens, Giroud grabbed a superb hat-trick as Arsenal crushed Olympiakos 3-0 to book their spot in the Champions League's last 16 with a classy demolition job.
With Arsenal needing an emphatic victory to make it out of Group F, France forward Giroud produced a high-calibre display of finishing to ensure the English club finished second, level on nine points with Olympiakos, but ahead by virtue of their better head-to-head record.

Giroud opened the scoring with a powerful header in the first half, doubled Arsenal's advantage with a calm left-footed finish quickly after the restart and rounded off a superb individual display with a penalty.
The victory completed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for Arsenal who lost three of their first four games of the campaign and needed to win by any result other than 1-0 or 2-1 in their decisive group clash to finish second behind group winners Bayern Munich.
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