Arsenal vice-captain Per Mertesacker believes his team did not look sharp in the humiliating defeat against Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday.
The Gunners did not capitalise on Leicester’s loss and missed out on the chance of going top of the league as they suffered a 4-0 loss against the Saints.
Mertesacker says the team lacked a lot right from the start and that St. Mary’s is a very tough stadium to visit.
I think we lacked a lot in terms of how we started the game.
We didn’t look sharp in my opinion and this is a tough place to come to.
The German defender claims that the Gunners never matched Southampton, although urged his unit to switch gears and move on. The 31-year-old believes there are few positives that can be taken from this game.
We didn’t match them physically from the start. They scored a wonder goal that didn’t help us but in the end we have to switch on and not make the same mistakes. We have two big home games so let’s focus on that.
This game is a heavy defeat for us as we had a big chance but let’s not talk about chances as we have to bounce back very quickly and concentrate on our home game. We didn’t look good and we got lots of reminders on what not to do in a game. Hopefully this will be a reminder – a deep reminder, to concentrate and do things better.
Arsenal face Bournemouth at home on Monday night and will host Newcastle United the week after.
