Per Mertesacker says victory against Chelsea in the Community Shield would be a further confidence boost for Arsenal as they look to challenge Sunday’s opponents for the Premier League title.
The Gunners have won each of their last five visits to Wembley and the German, who has scored a total of three goals in the stadium for club and country, says he’s relishing the chance to test himself under the pressure of another showpiece game.
Speaking to Arsenal.com ahead of the club’s final pre-season game the centre-back noted: “The hunger to retain the shield is still there.
“Winning a trophy would add to the team’s confidence, especially a week before the season starts. This match shows how good, how fit the team are and it’s also a reflection of how well we’ve prepared over pre-season.
“When we’ve headed to Wembley in the past, it’s generally either been for a semi-final or a final. There’s always been that special tension and we could always handle that pressure. Even at 2-0 down [against Hull in 2014], we always managed to deal with different situations.”
Last season Chelsea’s consistency proved integral to their success as they cantered to the league title off the back of a fast start. Other clubs mounted strong runs throughout the campaign but it’s the ability to ground out results week in, week out that the BFG says Arsenal must emulate.
“We haven’t played Chelsea at Wembley in such a situation for a long time. They played really well last season, they were really consistent and always defended well from the front. I think if we can learn something from Chelsea, it’s to be consistent over the whole season.
“You need to be consistent, especially in the league. In the cup, you can win it with six straight victories, which we managed to do twice. The hunger is still there to win a cup and to stay cup winners. The consistency over the whole season is vital. It’s what everyone wants, the players and the fans.
“I believe we have a good base, a good structure and a good balance. We showed that in the second half of last season. We didn’t concede a lot of goals and that’s the target for the first matches, especially for the first half of the season.
“I think the key for our success will be not suffering too many injuries and not dropping too many points at the start of the season. That way we can ensure that we remain competitors.”
Sunday also represents another chance for Arsene to finally get one over Mourinho. It’s been well documented that the Portuguese has something of a hex over us and even though its a friendly it would be nice to shift the “#narrative” before the big kick-off.
Judging by the Blues schedule, they played against Barcelona in the States two days ago and squeeze in another pre-season game with Fiorentina next week before facing Swansea in the league, it’s fair to assume they could rotate their squad heavily.
Here’s hoping we win this one by a heavy scoreline, rip chelsea a new one and set a benchmark against them for the season.
And while we are at it also one for the Mou since he’s talking so much shite.
Just me, or is that not the goofiest shot of per Mertesaker ever?
Hands down.
COYG!!!!!!
Bring it and smash the chavs. This is no friendly.
Also there are only 2 reasons we havnt won the league since SHL04… 1.Roman Sonovabitch. 2.Shiek Man$our.
COYG!8-)
Let’s not forget what happened after we beat Man City in last years’s CS.
A 2-2 draw and a 2-0 win.
A win over Chelsea would be an immeasurable step forwards.
Let us also not forget that we started the season pretty poorly after winning last years CS though. It means little in the context of the season but like you say, hopefully we win and it gives us some confidence for when we take on Chelski in the league…
Ah, but also remember the CS was the start of Koscielny’s injury problems. Plus Ozil and Mertesacker were still on World Cup leave.
We started last season poorly not for any reason associated with beating Man City (Kos, Mertesacker, one CB light, shuffling defenders, countless players out, no Coquelin, no Bellerin, no Gabriel, etc). However, the confidence we gained last August was invaluable when we met them again later in the campaign. The same’s going to be true of Chelsea – only the poor dears don’t know it yet.
no, we need the preseason treble!!! Then we can go for the other 4 trophies, haha.
On pace for our first septuple.
I actually feel bad for the boys at this point. Years of having to answer questions about a trophy then they do and the goalposts are moved. ‘No no, we meant the league, now answer questions about belief and consistency for the next hour so we can twist your words in to saying arsenal will definitely win it. Oi Wenger, refuse to answer this question about mourinho so I can say how irritated you look’
I think it’s natural and a good thing. Should they think it’s job done because they’ve won the FA Cup twice? It’s a fantastic achievement and it’s been great to watch, I love this club, but it’s time for them to win something bigger. We’ve got the squad and the confidence and the momentum to do something great this year.
I mean answering the same f**kin questions 3 times a week for 10 years.
Yeah but that’s just football media unfortunately. Football pundits and journalists ran out of original things to talk about approximately 10 minutes into the first broadcast of the first football television program.
We just gat to shut morinho’s mouth off permanently
the only thing we learnt from chelsea is they are still a bunch c*unts
We have kicked away several monkeys from our back in the last two years. Monkeys like ‘no trophy in 10 years’, ‘no superstar/no big buys’, ‘no away wins against big teams’.
Winning this match against Chelsea will not only remove another monkey — no win against Mourinho — but will definitely double our confidence moving into the league. Our team is already brimming with confidence, but this win would make our players crave for more such wins.
My line up for Sunday:
Cech, Bellerin, BFG, Lolo, Nacho
Coq Santi
Ox Ozil Theo
Giroud
Bottom line- We need pace and creativity against the Chelski defense. By playing Ramsey and Wilshere on the wing wont we wont be able to trouble the likes of Matic, Ivanovci, Cahill and that cunt Terry.
Santi’s free kick to win it for me! COYG
Ramsey will play. If only for his record at Wembley and his ability to thread past the Chelsea bus.
Agree with your lineup. It will be a good dilemma for the manager in the coming months, figuring out how to deploy Rambo, Wilshere, and even Theo… Ox looks ready to fly right now down the right, Theo seems to be ready for CF and to be used anywhere across the front 3, while Ramsey and Wilshere are battling with Cazorla and Ozil in the middle or settling for the odd wide midfield spot. I just hope we don’t experiment as we did last season at the start. Wenger was trying to get the players set up in a 4141… Read more »
I sort of agree, but I’d have Theo on the right and Ox on the left. Or … perhaps Ramsey on the right and Theo up front, with Ox on the left.
My starting XI
Cech, Bellerin, BFG, Lolo and Nacho
Coq Santi
Ox, Ozil, Theo
Giroud
I expect a 9-1-0 formation from the cunts.
Expect a blue bus to be parked sunday to protect Courtois, some nasty challenges by that Diego ‘Ugly ‘Costa, and counters attack by the likes of Hazard who’s in great form already. The key will be to remain patient and we will break them down in extra time cause we are in better shape . I suspect the boss will park his own bus too and play counter attack.
Special incentive for The Coq. Do Hazard and we’ll double your money!!!
How many times do the boys need to boost their confidence ? My advice is be confident ahead of the new season . Win or lose this weekend we can not afford to let mourinho and chelsea make us believe we are not good enough to win the league . We are good enough to win the league , aren’t we BFG ?
2:1 to The Arsenal. 95th minute penalty save by Cech.
8:0 to the Arsenal. Four penalty saves by Cech, all of them given away intentionally just so we can show off how good Cech is. On the last one Cech takes the rebound and dribbles all the way to the other end to score our eighth goal. Earlier in the match, Terry and Costa both go up at the same time for a defensive header and simultaneously crack each other’s skulls and rip off each other’s nads. Ozil, Walcott, and Fabregas run rings around Fabregas until Fabregas is sent off for having a purse that doesn’t match his top. Moronho… Read more »
Fucking typos. “Ozil, Walcott, and OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN run rings around Fabregas …”
I believe Fabregas is suspended due to the silly red card he picked up in their last game of the season.
On an aside, if we won the FA cup again, is it safe to call it Arsenal F(A)C Cup?
Still see simpletons complaining he isn’t good enough.
BFG is one of the central reasons we won the FA cup two seasons in a row.
He suffered not from a post Wcup hangover but from lack of a familiar partner first half of season which cost (Monreal and Calum’s positioning were poor and we leaked most goals from crosses)
BFG’s positioning makes up for his ‘lack of pace’. Who needs pace when you are already there?
A BIG player for us.
Mr Blogs, will there be a live blog for the game on Sunday ?
Yes
Yay!!