It was a lot better than a defeat of course, and so the Arsenal fans, players and manager owe a big debt of thanks to Mesut Ozil for the assist and Kieran Gibbs for the finish in the latter stages of the north London derby which rescued a point against the spuds.
But a draw at home, especially one in which the Gunners were outplayed for large parts of the game, was hardly the ideal performance and result that we wanted to take into the two week break for the latest round of international games.
After that terrible thumping in the Champions League group game away to Bayern Munich, the doubts were already beginning to creep in about our ability to keep going after the strong start to the season and they will not have been eased by the derby game on Sunday.
However, according to the words of our giant German centre back Per Mertesacker reported by Sky Sports, there is no need for concern. The World Cup winning defender has no retired from international duty and so is looking forward to resting and recharging his batteries before we head to West Brom and that is all that the Gunners need.
Mertesacker said, “It was fun to play but we all looked a bit knackered, especially in the first half.
“We gave absolutely everything to get a draw here and we will enjoy next weekend off, a few of us, then back to duty the next week.
“We stayed with the same line-up as against Munich apart from Gabriel, and even they played on Thursday but they looked fresh in the first half and then suffered in the second.
“It is difficult to explain but to sum it up both teams gave their all on the pitch and that is why it was a joy to watch and a joy to play, especially in the second half.”
Hopefully our BFG is spot on and with some big players due back from injury and others like Coquelin, Ozil and Monreal are not involved for their respective countries, we should be back to winning ways. So is there really nothing for Arsenal fans to fret about?
Tiredness was visible on some players namely Alexis as the big one. Ozil looked ready and we are very lucky he was.
Campbell am afraid to say we lose balance and cohesion, the ball gets recycled less thus making in game confidence harder to build upon. I end up saying every couple of moments ..arrgh come on lets win the ball back and Joel can hopefully make some runs through the centre which he rarely does.
Ill be glad to get that right side back, and also some much needed rest for Alexis Cazorla Coquelin and Ozil ..Kos might need it too.
Can’t wait to see hector bellerin back into that right back position! A speedy recovery to you hector!
Interesting stat:
9 : Most no. of tackles won by any player in a match in the whole weekend, or I say until now by our Frenchman. HINT : Not Coquelin. Another HINT : He made the overlap at right leaving Mesut Ozil completely unmarked/free to provide the assist.
He definitely played well. Eriksen was a dangerous, in-form player heading into the game. Kept him very quiet!
Why Gab is not playing ?
I back Mertesacker more than most based on the comments I read here. His very few bad games get blown out of proportion and the games he dominates gets passed off as nothing.
But I’ll admit, he has not been up to standard these past few games.. Which is a shame considering how well he played in the very tough games against United and Bayern (H).
If Gabs, Bellerin and Kos are fit following the break I think we’ll see them all start against West Brom. We lacked energy vs Bayern and Spurs so I think the hard marking back-line will be the preferred option. Or maybe Debuchy will stay in after a very solid performance if we hope to keep him the remainder of the season.
We weren’t physically tired,we were mentally tired. We played on Wednesday,they played on thursday,we just didn’t have any fresh legs to kill off the game.
Need jenkinson back next season and let West Ham have chambers for s year. Thing with Carl he can mix it up and play right and centre
i don,t agree with you@onochie!we were physically tired and not mentally actually like WENGER said we were mentally strong&showed character,our mental strength was the reason we didn,t lose despite the fact that we were not playing we could have won the game in the last 15-20 minutes of the game!!