Per Mertesacker Comments on Arsenal's Early Season Struggles

A disappointing lack of form is beginning to take its toll on squad morale at the Emirates Stadium, Per Mertesacker has confirmed, with the Arsenal defender confessing to some of the team's faults.

Two goals in the dying minutes of Wednesday's Champions League tie against Anderlecht saw the Gunners complete a 2-1 comeback in Belgium. The Guardian's David Hytner quotes Mertesacker in admitting standards have not been good enough of late, though:

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Football-wise, we lack a few things. The passing game is not as efficient as last year. We are not at our best, we have to admit that. We have to be honest to ourselves and train harder.

Again, it is away from home on Saturday and again, I think we have to do better with our possession – to put more pressure on them, not to lose so many balls in the middle of the park, to play more in wide areas. I think it is better to expose them there, instead of playing one-twos through the middle. It doesn’t work as much as last season, so we have to work on that.

To sum it up, the last five minutes [against Anderlecht] were great; the 85 minutes before, we lacked a bit of everything. We are just pleased with the last five minutes and our finishing. I feel sorry for them, because they did nearly everything. But they just suffered in the last five minutes and added time.

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Mertesacker went on to talk about his own lack of motivation, according to Hytner:

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Mertesacker was asked whether he was finding it difficult to hold the back four together. “It is difficult,” he replied. “For me personally, it is difficult at the moment because that was really a long season last year, and to come back from the World Cup and get the motivation back – I am nearly back but you can feel there is something missing at the moment.

[...]

Mertesacker painted the picture of a team that is groping for the solutions. “We came back [to win],” he said. “There was a bit of belief but not that belief. So it was a bit strange. Everyone knows that it is a difficult start to the season for us, and confidence is not that much how we want it. But the character is good and the mentality is good.”

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Kieran Gibbs and Lukas Podolski netted to save Arsene Wenger's blushes, but the European victory was but another example of how things are not all well in north London.

Four days prior to that result, Arsenal again had to come back from a deficit in order to salvage a 2-2 home draw against Hull City, and the club still has just two Premier League wins to its name this term.

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Sitting in seventh after eight games, Wenger's men have taken 11 points from a possible 24 this season. At this stage of the last campaign, they had 19 points and were placed at the summit of the standings.

ESPN's Miguel Delaney argues that with the resources at hand, Arsenal shouldn't have an excuse for finishing outside the top four, using Liverpool's recent over-achievements to back up his claim:

Mertesacker has been one of the club's more consistent players since arriving in England three years ago, but Laurent Koscielny's injury woes, combined with the summer departure of Thomas Vermaelen, has caused concern at the back.

Arsenal have managed just one clean sheet so far this season, but the German centre-back identifies passing and movement as another issue.

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This would put the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere in the spotlight, along with major signings Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, who were brought to the club for a combined £77 million.

With title hopes seemingly out of the picture, it's in times like these that the fortitude of a squad is truly put to the test, and questions will be asked of Arsenal's character as they hope to stage a revival of their 2014-15 season.