Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker met with the media after the Gunners’ 3-0 win against Manchester United at the Emirates stadium today.
Mertesacker delivered a strong performance against the away side, especially on the defensive end. His positioning was good and he saved his side by clearing the ball when it mattered the most.
The 31-year-old German talked about how important it is for Arsenal to climb up in the table and how his team isn’t that far from the top.
I think it was vital for us to stay [near] the top of the Premier League.
The distance between us and the top is not far, so it was vital. Also the way we started the game was good for us and very important.
He praised his side for taking off from the start.
We pushed really hard in the first ten or 15 minutes, and after that we tried to defend as well as possible, and most of the time we did that. The start was not shocking for us, I think we are capable of doing that, but we have to kind of remind ourselves that we can do such things.
Mertesacker talked about his attacking teammates who linked up well in the final third.
It’s very important that they find each other in the final third.
You could see the little pass from Theo Walcott to Mesut Ozil, how important that was, just a tiny little ball, and on the break we are very dangerous, and even more so with the two players you mentioned.
The captain also discussed the difficulty of defending against Manchester United, especially after they’ve unloaded Marouane Fellaini.
Defensively it was a tough fight, especially in the second half when Fellaini came on. He is always very physical but we did quite well.
We gave them two or three chances, but we have a great goalkeeper as well and he did well also, so defensively I think we can build on that.
Now we have a little break and in two weeks we come together again and we have to remind ourselves what we can do.
Next up is the international break, but after that Arsenal travel to Watford before facing on-form Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
