Per Mertesacker says reaching the FA Cup final for a second consecutive season is a good response to the disappointment of exiting the Champions League.
The Gunners will play Aston Villa on 30 May after grinding out a 2-1 win over Championship side Reading – a ninth consecutive victory in all competitions since their 3-1 home defeat to Monaco.
Speaking to the Evening Standard after Saturday’s semi-final win, the BFG spoke with pride at the club’s achievement urging the squad to maintain their form in the final six weeks of the campaign.
“We are just delighted that we made it again. It is a little progress – it will be a great honour, back to back FA Cup wins. We have extended our season for one more week.
“We were knocked out of the Champions League and that was a big blow for us but after that we responded and it is a great achievement. Let’s continue our great run. We can do what we want, we just wanted to win and do something fantastic for the team and the group.”
Having sustained a nasty kick on his ankle the BFG was replaced by Gabriel early in the second half. Hoping the damage isn’t too serious, he admitted that the prospect of a lay-off was still on his mind at full time.
“I felt my ankle and had to come off. I twisted my ankle but obviously I am delighted that we are back here again at Wembley and that is a fantastic achievement for this group for the second consecutive time. We are really proud. I have to assess my ankle first. Hopefully it is not too bad and I will be happy.
“You can see everyone is absolutely happy and delighted. What can I say? I am a bit down but when the lads came in they were just delighted.”
The last time the BFG sustained a bad twisted ankle – away at Sunderland many moons ago – he was sidelined was several months. Arseblog News really hopes that’s not the case this season. We shall be keeping our fingers crossed…
We’ve got a Big F******g German!!!
Pray he’s not a Big F*cked German, we need him…
For what? He’s a liability. Gabriel is way better. Mertesacker should not play against the bigger teams.
On the contrary, Per is better for the bigger games, where the other teams tend to attack more and we are maybe sitting back abit more and catching teams on the counter. Gabriel vs teams where we push up and control and dominate the game maybe more suited as if they try and catch us on the counter he is alot quicker than Per hence can get back faster. Either way, its nice to have options at the back. Alot of people want Per gone, but I hope hes here for many more years, excellent defender, leader off the pitch… Read more »
You bellend
Some people have such stupidly short term memory it’s unbelievable. Is this the same ‘liability’ who behind Ramsey was probably our POTY last season? The same one who was part of a world cup winning German side that he had a been a part of for 100+ caps. The same one picked consistently for years by Wenger and Low, two of the most respected coaches in world football. He had a poor start to the season as did our entire team, but it’s understandable after his exertions in the summer and then being forced straight back into our team after… Read more »
6 weeks to recover and hopefully Gabriel and Kos will have built up a formidable partnership by then so that he’s cover on the bench
then we can have a full holiday, full preseason and get BFG beast mode next august
Tiim Sherwood’s a Gooo-ner
Who likes to shoot into his own foot
IN THE BAG
No way. It won’t be easy, Villa will be every bit as fired up next as Reading were last weekend. We don’t need to be over-confident and believe it’s in the bag.
Still, I have every confidence we can and will win our back-to-back trophy. But first, I want to beat the Chavs this Sunday (a first win for Wenger against Mourinho) and get a win at Old Trafford too.
*next month*
Get well quick Per. We need you for Mourinho’s hounds of hell. On an unrelated note I’d really like to kick Michael Owen in the balls.
How is that “on an unrelated note”? You need mertesacker to kick mourinho’s cuntish hounds in the balls and you want to kick a cunt from hell in the balls. Very related to me
We need our BFG back and firing.
And what if we get another TV5 episode. Recovers-has no place in the starting lineup-gets discontented because he knows he’s quality-leaves
EHM TV5 was in the doldrums injury and football wise, like all the left overs we ship to Barca
Very well said Per. A 2nd consecutive season with a major trophy can only be seen as huge progress. Not to mention the possibility of finishing 2nd. That being said there’s still plenty of work before we get there, but I really can’t help getting excited about our prospects next season.
Russian commentary on our BFG, worth a view, though NSFTO warning:
http://arsenalist.com/f/2014-15/arsenal-vs-reading/um-check-out-what-the-russian-announcer-just-called-mertesacker.html
That’s not Russian 🙂
No? I was doubtful but took Arsenalist at his word.
Is it German?
Yes, indeed. Arsenalist corrected it on Twitter later, after people got surprisingly emphatic about correcting him… multiple times.
He’s just explaining what the BFG banners mean, he isn’t calling him the name precisely. And I’m a bit surprised at the fuss about it – any German (indeed not Russian) who knows what that English word means must obviously have known it beforehand, so no one is being corrupted. Why does the English-language media refuse to write the word out, if many thousands of fans know it, and it’s sung loudly in the stands? I’m glad that German media doesn’t do this much of the “oh no, let’s all pretend that no one ever swears and use cutesy little… Read more »
Big Foot ! That has genuinely made my day, having a grand old chuckle right now, thanks 🙂
Big Foot is great. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1123850/thumbs/o-PER-MERTESACKER-facebook.jpg to see Per joining in the joke with a children’s book.
F*cking is not the sort of word that you’d say in front of your grandparents (or parents in many families). But that’s British society I guess. Aren’t there German words that are ‘naughty’ as well?
Sure – the German translation of that particular word is very crude though, and not used as a casual filler word like the English one is. Our casual profanity is mostly excrement-related, so when they drop something on their foot, the first thing most people would say is “Scheiße”. And while you might not use words like that freely in front of a boss or a professor or something the way you would before family members, we don’t seem to have any “these words must never be said on TV” list that I gather exists implicitly or even explicitly in… Read more »
We have a 9pm ‘watershed’ on TV after which use of language is a lot freer, plus sex is possible on screen etc. Up to that time I guess the argument is that we are protecting kids.
My 16 year old son would never use a word like f*ck I’m sure, doubt he’s ever heard it….
Ironically, it comes from a Swedish word for the same thing. Should count it as a “foreign” word…
I love how the commentator put a bit of a Cockney ‘Facking’ in there. Brilliant.
We will miss him, hope it’s not long. Get well quick big man.
Product motherf*ckers, product
True dat
BFG
I really want the team to retain the FA cup for some obvious reasons. 1. Winning things often will create a winning mentality at the club that is vital for further success. Players like Ozil and Alexis would not know what it means to go trophiless at Arsenal. 2. New signings will be infected by this desire and that will infuence their bedding-in time and productivity (I believe this is one key reason of Alexis’ fine start – he joined a team with the winning feeling). 3. That would galvanize the board, management, players and the fans to go that… Read more »
villa are full of pace and thats what sherwood has imposed on their playing style using it to their advantage, i think gabriel with his pace would be a better option along side kos but he hasnt got per’s experience but he looks capable to handle himself now gabriel but as eggs are eggs and AW is AW per is fit he will play….. SIGHS….
Per is indeed a typical German machine…. I keep wondering at the number of matches this man played compared to his age it is amazing. I wish 90% of the team can stay fit like him. Well we are the famous Arsenal. in other news Terry and Owen still remain serial cunts….
Time to give the BPL the “Atletico Madrid” treatment:- Wrestle the two richer teams (or three in this case) to submission and win the title.
“he was sidelined was several months”…am I gonna get banned now?
The thing is Kosenely is at his beast best when only playing along side BFG, I just don’t know why!
Whatever happened to the horse placenta treatment? Ahh, good times
Massive player for us. Who needs speed when you are already there? Koscielny and him coming back into regular partnership is the main reason for our turn around this season, NOT Coquelin (Granted he has also contributed and taking nothing away from him) There was no mythical world cup hangover. Truth is Wenger failed to reinforce at Cback and it cost us bc partnerships available to Per where either inexperienced (Chambers) and/or unfamiliar to role (Monreal) Given that, it would always be difficult for Per and this is reflective (Something you will not see 7amkickoff mention) in the fact that… Read more »
As far as FA cup final is concern, well Wenger has taken us here 10 times and we are able to again win it consecutively and mark a record as the most successful club in the tournament. Which is a far lot better than I can say for Liverpool (or Spurs) both teams that the media will continually like to remind us are run by football geniuses in Rodgers and Ponchentino and will take our fourth spot and that we have few players who can walk into those squads. Which is utter bollocks given they have not done so nor… Read more »
As for Spurs. They are a one man squad. I’ll be generous and say two. Lloris is the only quality player they have. Maybe Kane if he can replicate and not be a one season wonder. City have fallen off despite all predictions by media that they have plenty of depth and have spent well. United are still close to our coat tails LVG has rebuilt a bit of resilience to the side. Again remember the same squad with under-performing players under a good manager (and we have to begrudge that LVG has been around the blocks a couple of… Read more »