Arsene Wenger says Danny Welbeck's work on the training ground earned him the right to be Arsenal's penalty taker against AC Milan on Thursday.
Welbeck took his first penalty in senior football when he stepped up to equalise in the 39th minute of Arsenal's 3-1 win -- having earned the penalty himself by falling to the ground, despite there being no contact.
It was Welbeck's first goal in more than two months and he added a second near the end to add polish to the win.
Some were surprised to see Welbeck step up to the spot, even in the absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, but Wenger said he was confident in the forward's abilities.
"He worked on it in training a lot," Wenger told the Arsenal website. "He took many penalties and he convinced me that he can be a good penalty-taker."
The only other penalty Welbeck took in his career was with Arsenal's under-23s last January, when he was returning from a knee injury. On Thursday he calmly sent Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way, slotting a low shot into the left corner of the net.
Despite the diving controversy, Wenger said the game should serve as a big confidence booster for Welbeck, who was also called up to the England squad earlier in the day.
"Every game he plays makes him stronger and that is very good for Danny, for his confidence, for the fact that he did fight very hard and he scored a penalty that was a vital one, an important one," Wenger said. "And he had the mental strength to have a clean finish."