Per Mertesacker: Arsenal don't need to sign any more players following Crystal Palace win

Per Mertesacker hailed Arsenal's team spirit following their win over Crystal Palace

PER MERTESACKER has revealed that a heart-to-heart discussion among the players in the Arsenal dressing room was behind the instant resurrection of their title hopes against Crystal Palace yesterday.

 

After a stuttering opening day 2-0 defeat to West Ham, Arsenal were under pressure to bring back all three points from Selhurst Park – a feat they achieved thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez.

But their victory was built upon the back of a far better defensive performance which – Joel Ward’s exceptional low drive – proved a lot more resilient than it had done against the Hammers.

“Obviously when everything goes very smooth in pre-season, you avoid those talks which are sometimes very important,” Mertesacker said, “But that was not the case last week.

 

“We came out of the game where no-one knew exactly what we did, so we have just had to come back to our game.

“Against Palace, it was good possession, to play the ball through the midfield and penetrate them, which we did really well in the first 15 minutes.

“We were dominant, and that was the key to our success.

“We started really well, had a couple of great chances in the first 10 minutes and could have scored earlier.

 

“We looked quite good defensively, but it was a good goal from them with no chance from Petr.

“After that, we came back, then they had a chance at the start of the second half (which hit the post) and that kept us in the game.

“Then we started to play again and created some good chances.

“We made it difficult for ourselves, but overall it was a very encouraging performance from top to bottom.”

 

Arsenal are always going to live life on the edge all the time they do  not score enough goals to kill of games, but despite widespread calls for manager Arsene Wenger to sign a world class striker, Mertesacker retains complete confidence in the attacking players Arsenal already have.

“We have a good strike force,” the Arsenal captain said. “We were good on the break, good in the combinations, there is a lot more to come from us, that is what we need, that is our game, and we need to count on that.

“So we are happy with our squad. We kept all our players, got Petr as a great addition, so that is what players should care about, their own game and their interaction between each other.

“The spirit is great, so we have a good squad.”