Nothing gets past Per Mertesacker at Arsenal!

In the absence of Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker has become the main defensive stalwart for Arsenal lately, and according to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, nothing gets past the German in the dressing room either!

The Ox revealed on Arsenal.com that Mertesacker is Wenger’s “enforcer” off the pitch, fining all the other players for any minor infringement of the rules. “Per is the enforcer,” Alex said. “He’s the fines master so he keeps everyone in check and he’s always issuing fines to make sure that people are on time.

“He’s open to dispute as well! He’s got his own little committee and you can voice your argument if you think you were late for a good enough reason. Usually his final word rules and he doesn’t get fined because he’s never late. He’s too efficient!

“He’s got me with a few. Being late for meetings, dinner, breakfast in hotels, being late into training, using my phone in the wrong areas of the training ground – there’s a lot of fines like that.

“They’re pretty straightforward but it’s really important that we all keep our time and keep our standards high. Per makes sure he stays on top of everyone in that respect.”

Personally I think it is a great thing to keep discipline off the pitch. When you have a lot of youngsters around earning astronomical amounts of money it must be very easy for them to think of themselves as prima-donnas. It’s good to see that Wenger has his eyes and ears off the pitch to keep the lads in line (and a German one at that!)

Don’t mess with the BFG!

Tags Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain Per Mertesacker

25 Comments

  1. Really?! That’s good. Nothing should get past him on the pitch as well, that will make us unbeatable.

    1. Question is, who gets the money!?? If it’s Per then he must be a billionaire by now considering our club is loaded with prima-donnas.

  2. Mertesaker was World Class along with Larent last season however this season he’s reclined in form, he should be third choice Centre-back behind Hummels and Koscielny next season, fingers crossed. As I am writing this, those c*nts down the road just scored the winner against Villa, f*ck sake.

  3. i’m sorry to say this……. But Average Mertesacker is just meant to Look good by the Likes of chambers and koscielny(all due respect to his aging effect)…. But he really Lacks veLocity (somthing highly required against speedy C.Fs)

  4. i’m sorry to say this……. But Average Mertesacker is just made to Look good by the Likes of chambers and koscielny(all due respect to his aging effect)…. But he really Lacks veLocity (somthing highly required against speedy C.Fs)

    1. Made to look good by Chambers and Koscielny? Ha ha ha ha. So true. I mean Mert gives away so many penalties and freekick, it is not worth it. Seen his tackle ratio? 0.1% per game. I mean come on, a defender with hardly any red card is not a defender at all, he may as well sit down when we play. Also, completely agree regarding velocity. When has sensible decisions made a difference to a game? Its better to run and foul a pacey attacker than to position yourself intelligently. Also he is too tall and scores very little goals for us. One fcuking goal in a FA Cup semi-final? I mean who needs that? He should stick it where the sun don’t shine.

      We should have two Koscielnys than two Mertesackers in CB pairing.

      1. Yes, Per is extremely slow, but playing at CB is not only about pace. There’s a lot of other aspects that are more important than pace – good positioning and awareness, good tackling, aerial ability n strength, ability to intercept passes among others. I think its fair to say that Per has excelled in the aforementioned attributes n he deserves a lot more respect than what fans r currently showing.

        We used to have one of the quickest CBs in the EPL (vermaelen) but despite his pace, his positioning and tackling skills were poor n he conceded a lot of goals because of that. Thats why he was a 3rd choice CB. This justifies that, pace alone is not a key attribute to being a good CB.

        To be fair, I don’t remember us conceding goals as a result of Per being out-run by the opposition strikers. The only time he was beaten for pace this season ws against Diego Costa, and on that instance, he wasn’t the only one beaten – Koscielny ws beaten too as costa ran in between him n Per.

        If he had pace, he would’ve been literally perfect by any standards. So do you people really want us to sell a defender because he is not perfect?

  5. The title of the article is very deceiving.
    But this is a nice system.

    I guess the lowest number of fines- Sanchez, Ramsey, Arteta, Szczesny, Koscielny.

    Highest number of fines- Jack, Ox, Mesut, Santi, Giroud.

  6. @ Matt……… Why are u so worried abt the spuds?……. The most annoying of premier League teams are out ere…. One of em played against QPR yesterday and were Lucky 2 have salvaged 3pts …. With their noiseome, fouL-mouthed fans,……gush they could be so irritating!

  7. One of the reasons I still hate Wenger for is Cahill snub supposedly because of his price and “years” left on his contract. That Guy was a still then. We lacked that English presence at the back for too long. Thank God he moved fast enough for Chambers.

  8. At least he’s good at something! Maybe time to give him an off the field job at the club, (please!).

  9. We need to sell per and buy a starter to pair wirh kos. Chambers/hayden/monreal to cover. Per is slow anyway so I don’t want him rotting on the bench and then having to come on as cover when needed.

  10. Mert was released from his youth club because he was too slow to make in the Bundesliga.

    After all these years of playing great at club level and for the current world champion national team he still heard from fans that he is just too slow and should be dumped immediately.

    Now, every few weeks, some fans claim his days are over – his pace is NOW just too limiting

    And he just keeps proving the doubters wrong.

  11. Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic never scored goal vs Germany. For germany Per Mertesacker was in every of his 98 national site games worldclass. i’m not remember one mistake of him. I think the other Arsenal players don’t play intelligent teamwork. A Genie cant work together with an idiot. Mesut Özil has the same problems.

  12. HahHah… nothing gets past Mert… what Mert are you watching? He is regularly left for dead by opposition wingbacks or other… he is as slow as an old woman with wet bloomers!
    On Saterday against Burnley Monreal bailed him out twice… once he has been passed he does not even turn and chase as the guy is so far away already – no – look again – He is a good footballer, with fantastic anticipation, but not enough speed to be termed good!

  13. Lots of Per M lovers on here tonight, maybe some people should have gone to spec savers!
    Per has been at a standard not high enough for Arsenal since day one, only reason our defensive stats are pretty good is Kos, Mert and 1 on 1 is a terrifying thought.
    @badenglish. Per a Genie? LMFAO….
    Maybe he should stop spending his time on others discipline and focus on his own training? a little speed work with resistance/tyres wouldn’t hurt!

    1. Spot on but in addition his ball distribution is also poor both slow and pointless .. The sale of the verm was stupid unless we were going to bring in replacement now it just looks irresponsible .. The lack of power in our defence compared to top teams will cost us dearly even burnley were willing to have a hotmail on Saturday bcse all teams coming to emirates know that there is a goal to be had against the likes of mert arteta flamini and Monreal

  14. Wenger saying we’re playing a 4-4-2 in his press conference. I like the prospect of it, I’d prefer Giroud and Alexis as strikers rather than Welbeck and Alexis. With Walcott back and Alexis up top, Welbeck’s pace will be less important. I think Giroud’s strength, height and hold up play would better aid Alexis, like Dzeko and Aguero. Plus with so many teams parking the bus against us, Giroud’s ability to get tap-ins and headers would really help – all his 22 goals last season were scored from inside the box.

  15. The problem with him being slow is that now that he is becoming older he losing more pace the he already lacked. From the last games i saw i can name a bunch of his personal mistakes which has cost us valuable points.

    The diff between Laurent and Merti are way to big, and this needs to change.

  16. I love BFG. You guys can talk all the sh#t you want. Lovren has been garbage. Cahill and Terry look good because well they are but they also sit behind Matic and Cesc. City are open in the back playing three. United are def. still working their back line out. Chambers dives too much and doesn’t have great pace. I love Kos. But I also loved Sagna, Vermaelen, and Jenkinson. Why the Fck did we get rid of them. I also love Hayden. He should be next in line

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