It’s the 30th August 2011, and Arsenal fans are getting desperate. The deadline day is looming, and Arsenal don’t seem to have made any attempt to plug the yawning gap in their defence, that was a major part of the previous season’s collapse.
Sure, Andre Santos had joined, but he was a Brazilian full-back, Arsenal may as well have signed a winger (On that note, why didn’t Wenger buy a winger?! Walcott’s crap! And so is this Oxlade-Chamberlain kid! WENGER OUT! (I kid)).
Moves for Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka had been rebuffed and not chased, much to Arsenal fan’s dismay. Clearly Wenger was being short sighted as always and had faith in the shaky Laurent Koscielny and the returning Thomas Vermaelen.
Then it was announced that Arsenal had agreed a deal for German international centreback Per Mertesacker.
Who? What? Where?
This wasn’t as much of a leftfield move as some of Arsene Wenger’s signings. Mertesacker was reasonably well known thanks to his 90-plus caps for Germany, and had been linked in the press before.
Finally, a defender. But soon the warnings came in. “Mertesacker is slow, he won’t be able to deal with the speed of the EPL”. “Mertesacker’s not as good in the air as you think he might be”.
And during a portion of his first season, that seemed the case. While he wasn’t poor by any means, and certainly nothing like the shambolic pairing of Johan Djourou and Sebastian Squillaci that had slipped, miskicked and slid their way to the end of the season. But it always seemed like the big German was a bit behind everyone else, and he was caught out by some of the nippier forwards in the league.
Coming into his own
But as the season rolled towards Christmas and Arsenal picked up steam, Mertesacker formed a partnership with Laurent Koscielny (Vermaelen was forced to play left-back in the absence of Gibbs and Santos) that saw the fifth-highest amount of clean sheets kept by a defensive pairing at the time (5).
Quietly, without anyone noticing, Mertesacker had started to show everyone his true qualities. Calm, with a clear head and fantastic reading of the game, Mertesacker didn’t need to run fast to catch an oncoming striker, he already knew where he would be and had planted his towering Teutonic self right in front.
While Koscielny and Vermaelen won plaudits for their more bombastic style, Mertesacker was ignored, and many fans assumed he was still the same slightly lumbering presence of his early performances.
People started to recognise his abilities a little, earning him the title of ‘BFG’ (Big Friendly German, or something a little riper if you’re so inclined). But then he suffered a season-ending injury at Sunderland when he slipped on the dodgy Stadium of Light surface. Vermaelen and Koscielny became the star pair, and the German’s contributions were somewhat forgotten.
A new dawn
Despite some bizarre calls for him to be sold in the summer, Mertesacker worked hard to regain fitness and enjoyed a full pre-season, even being given leave from the national team by Jogi Loew so he could continue his preparations. An injury to Laurent Koscielny saw Mertesacker brought into the starting XI against Sunderland on the opening day of the season, and he’s been there ever since.
Partnering captain Thomas Vermaelen, and in one case Laurent Koscielny, Per has been the best defender for Arsenal this season, and the question of “which centre-backs do we start?” or “Who partners Vermaelen?” have been replaced by “Who goes with Mertesacker?”
There have been continuing calls to draft in Koscielny for Mertesacker whenever Arsenal face a tricky forward like Suarez or Aguero, but the German has remained and what a job he’s done. Again his lack of pace was pointed out as an issue, but his positioning and general mastery of everything defensive has seen him pass every test with flying colours.
It was certainly a surprise to see the German do so well, but with the number of Germany caps he has it should be no surprise. All great teams build from the back and in Mertesacker Arsenal might just have one of the best defenders in the league.
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