Per Mertesacker’s superb form has helped the team find its feet, says Arsene Wenger.
The 6’6” German international struggled to find his feet in the Premier League after his £8 million summer move from Werder Bremen, which came just three days after Arsenal had conceded eight at Old Trafford.
With the exception of a 4-3 loss at Ewood Park to Blackburn, Arsenal have been tighter at the back and Wenger hopes that Mertesacker will shine against Marseille tonight – a win tonight virtually guarantees progress into the knockout stages of the tournament.
In a pre-match interview, Wenger said:
‘Per is a good organiser.’
‘He really understands the game and is an intelligent player.’
‘Physically, he’s getting sharper in every game. He had no preparation for the season but now we look less nervous at the back and he contributes to that feeling.’
Besides his improvement defensively, Wenger wants to see Mertesacker offer more of a threat from set plays, clearly his height is something we could use to our advantage.
He went on to say:
‘Of course I expect some goals from him at set-pieces.’
‘In Marseille we had nine corners and from them, you expect to be a bit more dangerous.’
‘But if we beat Marseille, then it’s another building block and we are virtually through to the next stage.’
‘We have been doing it gradually. Maybe people judged us too early.’
‘I am more than happy where we are now.’
‘Marseille will be difficult. But we are coming together nicely.’
Wenger also added that Mertesacker is fully focused on the next few games:
‘The Premier League is very important for us now. To be in the first four is a target everybody has at this club.’
‘And in the Champions League, we really want to go through.’
‘I’m very confident and I think we’ll do this. Not having a pre-season was a difficult situation for me but now I’ve had some time and we are doing well.’
Mertesacker has really contributed to our return of form defensively. though he easily gets beaten to the ball in aerial duels, doesn’t usually get the first ball when defending set plays like you would expect a man of his size to do, the 27-year-old is an excellent tackler and his positioning in great, he is still settling in to the side and adapting to the English game. Though Koscielny, in my opinion, has been a more solid defender and performer, Per has only featured 10 times for us in the league and will get better as time goes by – I know we are yet to see the best from the German international. We know what he is capable of doing and I personally can’t wait to see how he fares with Vermaelen by his side.
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TV5 is an exceptional player….the best we have by far defensively. Kos is a good player,has great heart and is improving steadily but mertesacker is way behind. Recent results have flattered to deceive many fans. Take RVP out of the equation and we would be just mediocre.
Wenger is bigging up average players yet again….you all know where that kind of false confidence ends.
Other fans have criticized me for telling it how it is..i accept that. Just be realistic is all i can advise.
Funny how you call Kos a good player who is improving and then say Per is way behind after being in a new team, new league and new country for all of 3 months. This is pretty much where Kos was this time last year – a penalty prone player who made the EPL strikers run him over. At least Kos had an entire backline who spoke French and he was still medciore for months – what was his excuse then? Per doesn’t speak French, barely any English and so he’s already a terrible player rather than one adjusting to a new environment.
Good job
I lost count of the number of interceptions the long legs of Mertesacker made these few weeks, true he has ( had been guilty of the first two goals against chelsea ) to improve but he IS improving, winning a number of headers and the defence is gradually taking shape. I have no doubt that he is gonna be a crucial player for us this season
im sorry but mertasacker is far from good enough.
he should have easily stopped terry scoring. He is slow and easily beaten we need someone like samba instead.
Wow. Not sure what you are watching. PM is 6 ‘6, but was completely at fault for the first two goals against Chelsea, with poor positioning at fault for his losing two aerial duels to smaller men, one to a DEFENDER.
He doesn’t score, doesn’t know how to use his height. He gives the ball away too much and is EASILY beaten for pace. Not a starting CB, certainly not for Arsenal.