Arsene Wenger says Olivier Giroud “needed” his goal against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

The France international scored his first of the season at Selhurst Park with an acrobatic scissors kick as Arsenal ran out 2-1 winners.

Wenger was pleased with the team’s performance, and says Giroud’s opener will boost his confidence.

“He needed that [goal],” the manager told Arsenal Player. “We have good strikers. Walcott was not used today and he’s an exceptional striker, Welbeck is coming back, we have Alexis.

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“We have a strong striking force. What is important is that we show the team performance we have shown [against Palace].

“We had some very good moments in the game and going forward we were magnificent. We are still not capable of maintaining it for the full 90 minutes but that will come. I’m very happy with our response.

“Our game was fluid and we created many chances. We have shown important aspects in our game that will be very important for the rest of the season because they came back to 1-1, but we had the mental strength to respond despite the disappointment last week.

“In the final part of the game when we had to dig in, we did that as well. That’s quite positive.”