Source: telegraph
Chelsea v Arsenal: Per Mertesacker admits Arsenal 'were a bit scared' when they played Man City
“I thought we were a bit scared against Manchester
City from the beginning,” Mertesacker revealed, recalling last
weekend’s 2-0 home defeat to the Premier League champions. “We were not that
confident.” It is some admission.
Confidence has, as manager Arsène Wenger later conceded, been a fragile
commodity at Arsenal of late. “We can sometimes be inhibited, especially at
the start of games,” Wenger said. “It’s important that we get that out of
our system.”
Maybe, also, he revealed this Arsenal team can simply be too nice. “We need to
be a bit more physical,” according to Wenger. “I think when referees see our
team sheet they say ‘Oh, Arsenal, fantastic’.”
It could be, Wenger added, that he must “restructure the balance of the team.
We have the characters to do it. We have technical players but we also have
physical players”.
Arsenal
are certainly a ‘bigger’ team than they were and at 6ft 6in Mertesacker is
the biggest of them all. With 85 caps for Germany, aged 28 and one of the
most experienced defenders in the Premier
League then, he would also be expected to provide much of that
physical edge.