The Arsenal vice-captain Per Mertesacker is still convinced that the Gunners have the “potential” to be an excellent team, but first of all they have to realise that the length of a full game is supposed to last at least 90 minutes, whereas the Arsenal players seem to think the whistle should go at 60 minutes!
He has a very good point as just in their last two games Arsenal have scored four goals in the first hour, but conceded FIVE in the last 30 mins! Yesterdays defeat to Swansea has proved very costly and has even allowed the Swans to move above us in the table, but Mertesacker thinks this is not a “big issue”.
“We have the potential and we have to extend 60 minutes of performance to 90 minutes, that’s not a big issue.
“We played our game for 60 minutes with patience, seriously and they didn’t have a proper chance. Then we scored and we thought we didn’t need to keep possession or patience, and then we struggled. That was our fault and we did the same on Wednesday. We have to think about it quickly.
“We have good ideas on how we can extend the good 60 minutes into 90 minutes. It’s absolutely necessary in the next couple of weeks. We struggled a bit but we have great potential and you can see that.
“Now we have some time to think about the few issues that cause trouble because we made mistakes in areas we have to avoid.”
So it looks like someone has found the root of our problems at last, and thinks they can be fixed. At least I hope so or here may be a few people out selling “Big Issues” in the near future lol!