Per Mertesacker has revealed his pleasure in seeing all the pieces fall together at Arsenal, with Arteta and Edu’s return in the backroom putting us in a great spot.
The German is currently overseeing the Arsenal youth set-up at present, working closely with Mikel Arteta, who he tips to bring us back into the Champions League places.
Mertesacker was understudy to the Spaniard as captain back in 2015-16, before taking over the captain’s armband the following season, and he has praised the character of his colleague.
“I learned a lot from him and I can only say that our working relationship is great and our personal relationship is great, so I can see a fantastic future for us.
“It’s just building pieces with Edu as well, so I think we’re in a fantastic position. We don’t take anything for granted.
“Now is the time to really push on and make sure we come back to where we belong, and that’s the Champions League and having world-class players in the building, and having world-class young players.
“We want to build on our DNA that was developed over centuries, so we cannot forget the history and the greatness of the club.
“We are inheriting that and we are sons of so many greats that have led this club to greatness, so it’s a big responsibility, not only for myself but for Mikel, Edu and all the great leadership we have.
“I feel we have more and more people in the right places and I feel great about it.”
Our club certainly has a new buzz about in recent months, with a newfound hunger burning inside our players, and much more guile shown for all to see.
How long the rebuild will take is another question, but we certainly appear to have all the key components in place currently, despite only being months into Arteta’s reign.
The Spaniard took over from Freddie Ljungberg in December, and most recently managed to steer our side to win three league games on the bounce, only for the world pandemic to put a halt to the division. This was shockingly the first time this season that we had strung three consecutive wins together.
Hopefully that form will not have been wiped out when we finally get back on the pitch, although I have no doubts that Arteta will get the team back on track in no time at all.
Will it be a struggle to keep morale high after the crisis? Is there any doubt that Arteta can push us back into a regular top four spot, and possibly get us challenging for the title in the near future?
Patrick
