Arsenal new boy Per Mertesacker has warned his new team that their midweek Champions League opponents are going to be a tough nut to crack, but the GigantoGerman believes the Gunners can get a result.
“Dortmund were the best team in Germany last year”, he said. “They do a good job passing the ball and have great players.
“They are the toughest opponent in our group, so we will be very happy if we can take something from this match.
“It will be difficult for us but I know we have very good players and I’m confident we can get a result.”
Mertesacker made a winning start to his Arsenal career and played his part in a clean sheet as Arsene Wenger’s men beat Swansea 1-0. The Arsenal manager was happy with his debut and expects the German international to be better once he gets used to the pace of the English game.
“Mertesacker was calm and composed”, he said. “He just needs to adapt to the pace of the game. He looks very intelligent in his positioning”.
Yes We can!! we will get another clean sheet
Kinda hoping that the CL will provide a bit of relief this time round. No one in their right mind expects us to win the thing, so we might just use it as a means to get ourselves right, outside of what seems to be the pressure cooker environment at the moment of the Premier League.
Will no doubt be a toughie against Dortmund though.
As Arsene would say “difficult but possible!”
I expect the big boys (RVP, Arshavin, Walcott and Gervinho) to rise up and be counted. Arteta also has his first chance to live his dream of playing in the CL for a top European team. Tipping him to score or at least create the first goal! Too much too soon?
‘Too much too soon?’
lol, no. i’m with you. hattrick, third of which one of those crackers that crash off the underside of the bar, bounce on the line, spining up and into the roof of the net…
Come on u gooners,the boy for the swans at the back that cleared of the line looked class,very fast and great in the air rvp didn’t get a kick all game make a move wenger before fergie/harry/kenny just what we need
I think the chap ur talking about ‘caulker’ is on loan from spurs!
I’m pretty confident we’ll see a better performance from our boys at Dortmund, I’ll take a draw but 3pts wouldn’t surprise me!
@kevthegoon, folks like u make me laugh sometimes. one good game does not a player make! moreover if u had watched the game u would have realised that the player is a tottenham player, on loan to swansea!!!
I just hope we get to see some of Santos and Park.
Maybe start Santos as a left midfielder and stick RvP on the bench?
gervinho is our new left side attacker! park is a striker. lets play him as a striker.
Can he play centre half? Just in case, like. . . .
I honestly believe Arsenal has a chance of winning CL as long as we don’t meet barca
Here here to that. Even though Barcelona are supremely talented, they’re not invincible.
It will certainly be interesting to see if Per will have a good impact against European, let alone German opposition.
Don’t forget we beat ’em once last year. Why not twice?
@ Master Bates… I have a feeling anyone who wants to win the CL will have to meet Barca 😉
if we meet barca , and play 2 DMs Song and Pingpong we moght win it UGLY
and hopefully break a few legs as well…
anyway that leads to a bigger question, whose a bigger cunt
A: Bar¢a OR
B: Na$ri
Maybe the collective is by default bigger than the singular…
Let’s beat Dortmund so bad that Goetze wants to come to Arsenal. Then Wenger can come back in January with a big bid. This kid is in the same mold as Fab, Ozil, Xavi, etc…
naaah , we have wilshere . I know how it feels to have your best player taken by other teams before he reaches his potential.
Beside where will he play , we only field three midfielders , A DM (Song) , A CM(wilshere cos he is talented and homegrown) and AM(arteta) . Goetze is not a squad player
Just becuase other teams do disrespectful shit to us (barca) doesnt mean we should do it to others.
buying players isn’t disrespectful. barca buying cesc wasn’t disrespecful either, just the way they tried to conduct their business to drive down the price.
Yep. And the fact that Alves is one huge cunt. Among a bunch of rather huge cunts.
agreed. supreme talent.
Sorry lads didn’t see the game on tv but I was there and didn’t know he’s a spud,bastards he’s class
can we win the 1st game and perhaps get to the later stages before start talking of winning it?! we have 5 new players, they will need time to gel with the other players and get to know the arsenal system. lets all be patient with the lads and good things will happen
Whythe fuck are people still talking about signings!?
The window is shut (thank fuck) let’s focus on the football, you remember the game with 11 men aside and all that.
It used to be quite popular until the ‘Signings’ game took over.
Nicely put, bloke.
I always love these type of comments from players that are supposedly a news story. What’s Mertesacker supposed to say–that actually we have no chance of taking points from Dortmund and that even a draw would be a miracle?
[…] boy Per Mertesacker has warned of the quality of Dortmund but is confident we can get a result, while the manager thinks his experience of the Bundesliga will be important, saying: He knows the […]
@Master Bates, we need Goetze! Why? There’s this thing called injuries that seem to affect our squad so much. Arteta, Benny, Diaby & Rosicky are injury prone. Wilshere may not recover in time and Frimpong & Song are suspension prone. We’d be looking at Ramsey and Coq in the midfield when Mancs come home.
corect me if i’m wrong but gotze is currently deployed more like a winger? or right sided attacking midfielder? so he would replace theo, and theo could be used as a striker.
Or possibly a mascot
Attacking midfielder. Dortmund often play with 3, in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Depending on who else starts out of Kuba, Perišić, Kagawa and Großkreutz, Götze can play as a central or right-sided player. He played the central role quite a bit when Kagawa was hurt. Personally, I don’t think Wenger was looking at him as a winger when he tabled an offer. It’s like with Mata and Hazard, he could just as easily play inside as a playmaker. His dribbling ability is a nifty bonus. I would say that facing Dortmund sans Barrios is a good thing, but Lewandowski’s in fine… Read more »
What are you talking about goetze being the next son of maradona for? Firstly everyone saying he is a centre mid obviously plays too much FIFA. he is a winger. 2) he is not some second coming of messi, he’s a great player sure but I believe our wingers are better. 3) he plays for the opposition so stop sucking him off? And 4) Na$ri is a cunt!
we’ll suck him off if we want whats it to you?
delete this post.
I think we will lose 2-1 but a draw or win is definitely not out of the question either, both teams will be hungry to show their fans they mean business after disappointing starts to the season. BVB at home last year conceded only 8 goals but we have good players like gervinho,RVP and even the likes of walcott can come up with some good goals (when he isn’t crossing the ball into Ireland)
So, we might lose, or maybe win or draw as well, that’s your opinion is it HP?
Well should have clarified the chances of each, 50% chance of a loss, 25% on a draw and 25% on a win , happy? 😛
Of course if for some reason we decide to play squillaci the chances of losing go up to a 100%
is there a complex algorithm that allows you to arrive at these percentages or do you just make them up?
you don’t need to answer because obviously we all know you just made them up and they are completely useless 🙂
Does Walcott cross the ball to Northern Ireland?Or Eire?
[…] Mertesacker, who played in the Bundesliga for Werder Bremen before moving over to Arsenal, has emphasised on the danger of Dortmund, but is confident that we would be able to do well. […]
This whole ‘Na$ri is a cunt’ thing has become old.
Very old.
We all know it’s true so please stop.