It was the stalwart defending of Per Mertesacker which saw Arsenal over the line against Crystal Palace on Sunday, but the defender was impressed by the offensive prowess shown by the team.

Alexis Sánchez returned to the starting line-up and helped Arsenal to the winner, with a header that went in courtesy of Damien Delaney’s shin.

Olivier Giroud had opened the scoring in the first-half and Arsène Wenger also had Theo Walcott on the bench. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain managed to get off the bench after the hour mark and Danny Welbeck is still not fit enough to be in the squad.

Basically, Arsenal have a lot of strikers, and Mertesacker is impressed by them, while admitting they could tuck away more of their chances.

“We have a good strike force,” the German defender said after the win, which was Arsenal’s first of the season.

“We created good chances, but we could have executed better, especially in the first 10 minutes.”

The biggest missed chance was probably from Alexis Sánchez, after the ball was slid through by Mesut Özil. A swift counter attack left the Chilean bearing down on goal but he couldn’t beat Alex McCarthy, who was between the sticks for Palace.

Özil made everything click for Arsenal, sewing moves together and creating openings throughout the afternoon.

“We were good on the break,” Mertesacker declared. “Good in the combinations, [and] there is a lot more to come from us. That is what we need, that is our game, and we need to count on that.”

Arsène Wenger has said he wants more goals from his side this season, after Manchester City netted 12 Premier League goals more than the Gunners in 2014/15.

Hopefully our finishing will improve and we can put games to bed sooner, but we undoubtedly have the quality to carve teams open.