The Germany defender Per Mertesacker won his first trophy with Arsenal last year, and then went on to lift the World Cup with his national team. Now he is very keen to keep his run going by claiming the FA Cup again when Arsenal take on Aston Villa in the final.
Mertesacker had to withdrawn during the Reading game with an injury, but is looking forward to more “honour” before the end of the season. “I twisted my ankle but obviously I am delighted that we are back at Wembley – that is a fantastic achievement for this group for the second consecutive time,” he said. “We are really proud.
“It was a really tough game and we knew before that they would fight for their lives and give absolutely everything to keep us away from their goal and they did it fantastically. We are just delighted that we made it again.
“It is a little progress and it would be a great honour, back to back FA Cup wins. We were knocked out of the Champions League and that was a big blow for us but after that we responded and it is a great achievement. Let’s continue our great run.
“We just wanted to win and do something fantastic for the team and the group. You can see everyone is absolutely happy and delighted.”
Now the team has to get over the euphoria of the Cup and focus on upsetting Jose Mourinho this weekend. We may not be able to win the League but it would be a great honour for us to come second this year, as well as win the Cup!
Onwards and Upwards!
Off topic : If we do need to find another striker. Why not Charlie Austin? He is quite cheap, PL experience and also English so helps with the home grown rule.
Back to the topic. The problem against Villa is we have beaten them 8-0 across to games. Thus it sounds to easy on paper. WHich makes it going to be a very complicated game but I’m sure our boys can pull it off.
Interesting call on Austin.
Need to watch the quota.
But we have Wallcott
Chamberlain and Akpom.
Is he better than Wellbeck?
Austin will not lead us to the Premier league title or a Champions league final,as well as they’ve done we need a better striker than Austin or Giroud someone who will score 30 or more goals in all competitions!
Like who? Can you least some of these 30+ goals a season? And don’t give names we can never take.
Don’t agree with Austin but Bayern, Juve and Chelsea just about to win their leagues with no-one at or near 30 goals in all comps (Muller 19, Tevez 26, Costa 18). We have OG on 18 and Alexis on 22. This “guaranteed 30+ goal” striker thing is a nonsense – only Ronaldo and Messi fall in to that category as bona fide members, and one of them will not win La Liga. Look where Kane’s 30 goals have got the Spuds?
The last 4 games for us this season will be:
May 17 – Man United vs Arsenal (League)
May 20 – Arsenal vs Sunderland (League)
May 24 – Arsenal vs West Brom (League)
May 29 – Arsenal vs Aston Villa (FA cup final)
We get to play 4 games within a span of 12 days, which means we need to rotate the squad.
Arsene will obviously put out the strongest team against manure because it will essentially be the runner-up decider / morale booster.
Luckily the next two league games will be played at home and this is where we need to rest our key players, especially the West Brom game as they will most likely be safe from the relegation battle by then. Hopefully we will still remain 2nd in the league table and not have much to play for at that point, because the FA cup final will turn out to be very physical and we need everyone rejuvenated for our most important game of the season.
This should be his final season….a farewell medal for him…
OT: Wonder what’s AW plan on how to beat Chelski…that won with 30% ball possession and only 1 shot on target from Man u..
Def need to be prepared to take more long range shots..
I jus Fckn hate Mou’s tactics…Boring Boring Mourinhou!!!!
theres no way we are gonna beat them…
Mourinho will defend and park his entire team…..he rather have 1 point than no point….there will be alot of diving, foul and quick counter from chelsea
Yes they will park the BUS, TRAIN whatever but THEY NOT UNBEATABLE,
the trick is to score the 1st goal (much easier said than done), if only Rooney had scored his chance MU could’ve been in with a better chance…
Lesson – we cannot afford not to take out half chances..
how are we gonna score when they park 11 men just infront of their goal?
like I said, wont be easy, but they have conceded 26 goals in EPL this season, so also not impossible, and remem we are the most inform team at the moment….don’t forget its our home game…
besides if Mous tactics always workt then they should be out of the CL!!!
Going into next season.
Just add Schneiderlin 15m.
Reduce squad by 5.
25 man squad.
Ospina
Bellerin Koz Mertz Monreal
Coq Ramsey Sanchez Ozil Wallcott
Giroud.
Szcz
debuchi Chambers Gabriel Gibbs
Schneiderlin Wilshere Gnabry Cazorla Ox.
Wellbeck.
Res. Martinez Arteta Akpom
Loan. Jenkinson Sanogo Crowley Zelalem Bielik Niles
Sell. Podolski 10m Campbel 5m
Release. Flamini Ryo Diaby Rosicky
Net spend = Zero.