The attacker’s strike in the Gunners' 5-0 win on Sunday was his first in the Premier League since New Year’s Day 2014 having spent nearly a year on the sidelines.
“It’s such a relief when you get a goal - it’s always great when you’ve worked hard in training. It’s been a whole year since I started my first Premier League game, so I’m very pleased,” he said following the victory.
'It’s such a relief when you get a goal - it's always great when you've worked hard'
Theo Walcott
“I’m always delighted to score anywhere, especially at the Emirates it’s something special,” he told Arsenal.com. “We just broke, I played a one-two with Santi and probably nicked it in front of Oli [Giroud], and managed to put it in the far corner.”
As well as attempting to secure a spot in the Champions League, Walcott and his team-mates also have an FA Cup Fifth Round tie with Middlesbrough next weekend.
The Gunners are in a rich vein of form having won their last five matches in all competitions, scoring in the opening ten minutes in three of their last four games – and their quick-fire openings are the sign of a confident team according to Walcott.
He added: “We started very well. That’s been the message from the manager to us players - that we need to start well.
“We’ve been doing that in the last four, five or six games and the results will go our way when we’re 100 per cent at it.
“We’ve continued to do that and you could see at the end that we wanted to score more goals. That’s the sign of a confident team.”
