Arsenal responded to disappointment a week before to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 on Sunday, and Olivier Giroud was pleased with the way the team bounced back after a defeat to West Ham United.

The narrow win gave the club their first three points of the season and, though the game could have been wrapped up sooner, the Gunners defended well to see it out.

“We really needed these three points to bounce back [from] the performance at home when we lost against West Ham,” Giroud said to Sky Sports after the victory.

“We could have killed the game before but it was nice for the suspense!”

Giroud also notched his first goal of the season, with a lovely finish to send Mesut Özil’s cross beyond the Palace goalkeeper Alex McCarthy and into the far post.

The striker has faced plenty of scrutiny, including after defeat last week, and Arsène Wenger has opted to use Theo Walcott as a striker in recent games. He stuck with Giroud on Sunday, though, and was rewarded.

“It’s always nice to score when you’re a striker, especially a goal like that – first touch. Apparently last year I scored 19 goals and 16 were with my first touch so in the box I should always try to take it with my first touch.

“It was a good cross from Mesut.”

Giroud’s goal tally was impressive last season after he sat out around three months with a broken leg. Scoring is just one part of his game, as he is also excellent at bringing others into play. If he can do both well there is little doubt that he should still be playing regularly for the team.

“For a striker it’s always nice to score, even more when it’s earlier in the game. After you can play with more maybe freedom, confidence, try more things,” Giroud explained.

“We could have scored more goals making the right choice with the last pass but we’re really happy to get three points this afternoon, that’s the main thing for the team.

“The most important thing in football is to bounce back and keep your faith in your game and we succeeded to do that today.”

Being clinical is important and undoubtedly the team will have to work on but, after a huge blow was suffered last weekend, there’s no doubt that getting back to winning ways was the important thing on Sunday afternoon.