Giroud 'relieved' to get first Chelsea goal

London, February 17: Olivier Giroud was "relieved" to get off the mark for Chelsea as he scored his first goal and got two assists in a 4-0 FA Cup hammering of Hull City on Friday.

The Frenchman joined Chelsea for £18million from Arsenal in January and failed to score in his first couple of appearances against Watford and West Brom in the Premier league.

But he ended that wait at Stamford Bridge, stabbing home from close range after good play by fellow new arrival Emerson Palmieri, completing the scoring just before half-time in an easy win that books the Blues' place in the quarter-finals.

"To be honest, I was waiting for it [the first goal for Chelsea]," Giroud told BT Sport.

"I had a couple of chances in previous games, so yeah, it was very important to get the first goal and now I am a little relieved, to be honest.

"I'm happy to set up Willian's as well. I take a lot of pleasure on the pitch and I think we can see the team has a lot of cohesion.

"It was important to bounce back from the defeat [against Watford] before the West Brom game, which was a disappointing result.

"Seven goals, two clean sheets since – it's what we needed."

Although Giroud impressed with his three goal involvements, Willian was arguably the star of the show, scoring twice and catching the eye throughout in a very lively display.

And the Brazilian saluted the overall performance of Chelsea, saying they made the game "easy".

"It was a great performance," Willian added. "Honestly, we expected a difficult game, but the game became easy because of us.

"We played very well from the beginning, scoring a lot and we did a great job. In football you always have to improve and we did that in the last two weeks, working hard to improve ourselves."

Source: OPTA