Arsenal: Per Mertescaker Says Gunners Can Finish in EPL Top 4 This Season

Compounding the flurry of good tidings swirling about Ashburton Grove, where on Sunday 3-1 Arsenal victory over Stoke City made it six victories in seven matches for the club, defender Per Mertesacker has voiced his confidence in a top-four finish this season.

Arsenal currently sit in seventh place in the league standings, but Per Mertesacker has tipped them to obtain Champions League football for a 16th consecutive season.

Mertesacker was one of five deadline deals made by manager Arsene Wenger at the frenzied close of the summer transfer window. The German international (capped 78 times) arrived on a £8 million fee from Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen, and was quickly ushered into the Gunners starting XI.

Yet the change, like so many transplants, wasn't smooth at the start.

Just over two weeks ago, ESPN Soccernet had reported that Mertesacker was finding his acclimatisation to the English game—one famous for its speed and physicality—a difficult one.

Still, the man who once went 31 games in the Bundesliga without a booking (Soccernet biography) believes that after weeks of an "all hands on deck" mentality, where agonizing losses to Blackburn (Sept. 17) and rivals Tottenham (Oct. 2) shook the club to its core.

Still, following three a run of three successive victories since the north London derby (Sunderland, Marseille, Stoke) Mertesacker is confident that things are beginning to look up.

Soccernet reported today that Mertesacker has targeted Champions League football for 2012-13.

The German is confident that the new-look Arsenal side is finally beginning to jell after enduring such difficult spells in August and September and can now begin a sustained effort toward his reported goal.

"The first four (in the league) is the target," Mertesacker told Sky Sports News. "The Champions League [is what] we want to go through, and it's a hard way. I'm very confident, I think we can do this."

Mertesacker will likely sit out Tuesday's Carling Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers, a competition in which Wenger's lineups have long showcased a collection of players on the fringes of first-team football alongside some of the club's top young talent.

Saturday's crucial league tie away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge looms large, however, and with center back Thomas Vermaelen only now reintegrating the first team after a cumbersome ankle injury, Mertesacker will be called upon to deliver a massive performance against the current third-place side in the Premier League standings.