Mertesacker - Kekalahan kepada Southampton Membangkitkan Kami

Foto: Arsenal.com

Pemain antarabangsa Jerman yang kembali konsisten, Per Mertesacker menyatakan kekalahan pada hari tahun baru yang lepas kepada Southampton telah memberikan satu kejutan serta membangkitkan skuad Arsenal dari lamunan.

Sejak dari kekalahan tersebut, The Gunners telah memenangi 5 perlawanan berturutan untuk kali pertama musim ini dan hanya dibolosi dua kali.

Mertesacker sangat berpuas hati dengan prestasi dan respon dari skuad Arsenal. Kekuatan pertahanan pasukan adalah tanggungjawab setiap pemain katanya lagi.

“Southampton was a major setback - it was a bad start to the year, after that we promised ourselves to come out of that comfort zone and be a bit more focused, especially [to know] that what comes first is defensive work and not just for the back four. 

“That was maybe the main thing for us to focus on, and afterwards we played more convincingly, especially defensively. You can see the benefit when everyone realises that, and I thought everyone realised it very quickly after we lost at Southampton. 

“Maybe sometimes you need a wake-up call to realise what is really important. We worked a lot on our defensive shape, not just the back four, to avoid those dangerous free balls against us. We look much better and the best game defensively was against Man City - that was a bit of a change. 

“In the last few years, we went there and wanted to convince everybody that we could play our own way, so it was a bit of a change [this time]. Sometimes we have to do something unexpected, and that was maybe the winning moment.” - Per Mertesacker

Skuad Arsenal semakin konsisten dengan prestasi dalam setiap perlawanan. Ditambah dengan keserasian Mertesacker dan Koscielny serta kehadiran Coquelin memberikan kelegaan kepada penyokong Arsenal.