There’s one thing for sure Per Mertesacker has been key to Arsenals success this season with his defensive partnership with Koscielny flourishing.

The much improved German has recently just signed a new deal and spoke to Sky Sports about the month ahead.

The month ahead

“These are all decisive games," Mertesacker told Sky Sports' Weekend Warm-Up. "There are no points to drop anymore. They are vital games and we are up for it. "I think it's up to us as to how close we can stay to the top. We have to concentrate on ourselves and we have to stay as close as possible to the top and that's the most important thing to us.

"It depends entirely on our finish; how we cope with the situation of our injured players and the situation that we have another chance in the FA Cup.

It’s clear to in his interview that they want to use last year’s strong finish as a platform to build this season on.  Mertesacker goes on to speak about how it would be great to achieve success and also mentioned about the togetherness in the group.

However, Mertesacker also gave us his thoughts on his new deal and goes onto say that he wants to end his career at Arsenal and wanted to show he was committed.

Overall, Mertesacker has been one of the main stays in the Arsenal team this year. It is the first time in years that Arsenal has had a solid base and with players such as Gibbs and Szchesny improving this back five will only get better.

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