Although a first defeat in 13 games for Arsenal will have been a big blow to the happiness and belief of the Arsenal fans, it has only seemingly caused a small scratch to the veneer of confidence that the players have got from our excellent 2015 so far.
As revealed in an Arsenal.com report, the Arsenal vice/captain and central defender Per Mertesacker is adamant that the Gunners will head to Old Trafford on Sunday feeling great about things and confident of coming away with a second win of the season over Man United.
Our BFG is not saying that it will be easy by any means, but he reckons that as long as Francis Coquelin can do the same sort of job on the United and Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini that he did in March, then Arsenal will have the right recipe for success.
The World Cup winning defender said, “We won [at Old Trafford] once and it’s possible to do that twice per season. We are looking forward to it.
“It’ll be a massive crowd again and they will have respect [for us]. We are still in a good mood and have a good level of confidence and we are looking forward to the next four games.
“I think most important are the duels in midfield, around Marouane Fellaini. Francis Coquelin did really well last time. I think that is a major part of their game so we need to try to control this.
“It’s not going to be easy. They obviously want to keep the ball as much as possible. Can we restrict it? Can we get the ball in their half and break? That is what we did last time and we did really well.”
The German also accepts that this game is a massive one for both clubs, even though we are both secure in the top four, as those Champions League play offs could be a real problem at the start of next season, with a shorter summer break than normal this year.
“[It would be] very important because, when you look at the schedule, the break will not be that much. I think, even for non-international players, it is pretty weird.
“And we have a couple of under-21 players, a couple at the Copa America I think, so it will again be a tight schedule, so we’ll try to really avoid that.”
So can Coquelin shackle Fellaini and stop him getting at our back four? Of course he can, then we just need to sharpen up at the other end and the game is ours. Feeling confident Gooners?