Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker believes Arsenal rode their luck a little bit against Borussia Dortmund in last night’s 1-1 Champions League draw, but is confident that when the new players settle into the team things will improve.
Arsenal almost took three points, clawed back by a late cracker from substitute Ivan Perisic, but the German international was happy with the way his new team performed.
“I think we had quite a lot of luck today”, he said. “Everyone could see that Dortmund are a team that’s used to playing together and they have good attacking players who are very mobile.
“We have many players who’ve come into the side in the last few weeks, so we’ll have to work on our understanding. Even though it was a late equaliser, we’re very satisfied.”
Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny paid tribute to the goal, calling it an ‘unbelievable strike’, while Perisic said, “I always try to shoot like this. Sometimes it’s a goal, sometimes the ball flies into the stands, but this ended up being the perfect moment for my first goal in the Champions League”.
I want this lad to work out…..but I’m not sure about him. Think he got his head on only one ball last night. And I don’t think he should be so high up the pitch given his lack of pace. And there did not seem to be any leadership or talking in the team last night when we needed it most. You’d think grown men could open their mouths and bollock someone. Our main problem is that NOBODY will dish out a bollocking on the pitch. Someone should call Arshavin, Wallcott etc. lazy little fuckers when they not cutting it.… Read more »
Fair comments ‘mkimh’. I think we may see more ‘verbal’ when LJW returns to the side and of course TV5, they are our most vocal players.
Wow… Just two games and we……. TV5 has a lot to answer. But even TV5 has a pre-season with Arsenal. I see all our last two games since the end of the Window.. as pre -season games. We have one more pre-season against Blackburn.. and if we cannot score three goals against a team that is keeping the EPL up.. we should all go home.
Metre will be fine.. and TV5 will boss the EPL
Both Kosser and Metre are lean men.. can’t really see either of them… the size of Samba.
Coherent and well thought out response!
hahaha
lol I didn’t know google translate was a gooner.
In the end everyone is satisfied.
I am not satisfied. I don’t understand this talk of the ‘strong defensive display’ we allegedly produced last night. In my book, a strong defensive display does not comprise giving the opposition a number of clear cut goal scoring chances. A strong defensive display does not depend on your goal keeper making a number of excellent saves to keep you in the game. A strong defensive display is limiting your opposition to very few goal scroing chances. A strong defensive display is all about an organised back 5, keeping a good line, frustrating the opposition, limiting the opposition to long… Read more »
I think you just need to relax. 4 or our starting 11 were players who have had less than two games with the team and the whole team itself has barely even trained together for a week. I completely get where you’re coming from in terms of what should make a great defensive performance and not wanting to hear people’s “they’re bedding in” arguments, but regardless, it’s a very valid argument. Get away from your desire for instant gratification and relax a little. The fact is, we DID defend well last night and only have room for improvement. We, as… Read more »
im not sure about competing for 4th place. the fact we always get pressed really hard in the last 15minutes is really worrying, especially against the likes of swansea.
You don’t understand. Of course I appreciate that last nights result was a good result. On paper it is a very good point. My frustration is to do with the notion that we defended brilliantly last night. At times last night, our defending was a shambles. Better finishing from the opposition and we’d not be celebrating a point earned. I do not want instant gratification. Far from it. As I said, I’m dismayed that so many people (inside and outside the club) think we produced a strong defensive performance. Our standards must have dropped…………. And I suggest you don’t advise… Read more »
Spot on mate
[…] would be some who would argue that we were lucky to even be able to draw the game, a sentiment echoed by Mertesacker. However, we all make our own luck sometimes! Furthermore, with the pile of injuries at Arsenal, I […]
Thought it was amusing that the goals were scored by van Persie, and his russian (maybe) counterpart, Ivan peresic!
I’m a little bored of the negative “we were lucky, dortmund threw away loads of chances” comments. Yeah they did, but so did we. Just remember, Van Persie had a couple of good chances, and Gervinhos early effort was well saved too. Szczesny pulled off some good saves, and their keeper did ok too. That doesn’t mean our defence was shit and we should have been “dead and buried.” It was a tightly fought contest against a very good team and it was a good, well deserved point. Once the confidence comes back we’ll hold onto the ball better, and… Read more »
Hang on, I agree it was a well fought for point. I am just dismayed that there is so much talk of a ‘strong defensive display’.
In Mert’s own words….“I think we had quite a lot of luck today”.
Fair enough. I’m just trying to say that both teams had a bit of luck. I do see your point though, as I wouldn’t exactly call it a sensational defensive display either. All things considered though, I think it’s getting better, and while it wasn’t exceptional it was enough to get a good result.