Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker has revealed he has been using yoga to help him recover from his serious knee injury.
The German has been sidelined for the Gunners since pre-season, when he suffered a knee injury in the 1-1 draw against Lens in late July, which resulted in Arsenal signing Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia as a replacement.
Mertesacker is expected to return in the new year, but the defender has given fans a glimpse into his recovery regime and revealed that yoga is aiding his efforts to reach "peak physical condition".
"Yoga has been a really important part of my rehab, helping me get back to peak physical condition! Nearly There," Mertesacker tweeted on Thursday alongside three pictures of him doing yoga with a trainer.
Meanwhile, Mertesacker revealed that his main priority away from working his way back to full fitness remains securing an extension to his current deal at Arsenal.
The defender will be out of contract at the end of the season, but told Spox recently: "A renewal with Arsenal is my absolute priority.
"But we have not made an appointment yet to discuss a new deal. Arsenal are my top priority and everything else is just speculation."
Arsenal may not have had a proper captain start a league match since 2014, but Per Mertesacker has had his portrait placed on the captain’s wall despite being sidelined until the last six months of his contract.
His stand-in, Laurent Koscielny, gave the definition of a captain’s performance against Southampton on Saturday, and while I’m not suggesting that Per wouldn’t have given the same sort of display had he been on the pitch, it was nice to have a captain on the pitch which is the whole point of a captain, really.
Anyway, Per’s face has gone up alongside Mikel Arteta and Thomas Vermaelen. Above him sits Cliff Holton, himself a one season captain, like Jimmy Logie beside him.
Manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that new signing Rob Holding could be the one to take over from Per Mertesacker in the Arsenal defence.
The German will be sidelined for months after undergoing knee surgery last month.
Holding has already featured twice for the Gunners in pre-season and scored his first goal for the club in their 3-1 win against Chivas on Monday.
Former Southampton man Calum Chambers is also in a strong position to be involved when the Premier League kicks off later on this month.
"At the moment we have Per Mertesacker out and we have Laurent Koscielny still on holiday." - Arsene Wenger"At the moment we have Per Mertesacker out and we have Laurent Koscielny still on holiday, plus Gabriel Paulista,"Wenger told reporters.
"One of them Krystian Bielik, Rob Holding or Calum Chambers will play at the start of the season or at least be in the squad.
"At the moment I have a look at everybody and after I will make my final decision. But as you just said, it’s true that Holding adapted very quickly.
"All the three have top quality and all the three miss a little bit of experience. I’ll have to make a decision in two weeks."
THE votes are in and have been counted — Great Britain is leaving the European Union.
But what impact will Brexit have on English football and what are the wider ramifications?
Previously only non-EU footballers required a work visa based on the number of times they have played for their country to be able to compete in Premier League.
But now that’s all set to change.
The new ruling puts European players on the same footing as Australians, Asians, Africans and South Americans, who must satisfy authorities that they’re of a suitable calibre via the number of internationals played.
Some of the players who wouldn’t have qualified to play in England last season include key players from Leicester’s Premier League champions, such as NGolo Kante and Riyad Mahrez.
While West Ham’s star signing and one of the best players at Euro 2016, Dimitri Payet, would have also have been denied his move from France.
Going back further in Premier League history, icons like Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn’t have played enough times for France and Portugal respectively to move to England when they did.
Before the vote, top football figures such as David Beckham, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, his club’s defender Per Mertesacker and even Ireland rugby international Tommy Bowe all backed the ‘remain’ campaign.
Beckham even released a statement on Tuesday calling on England to stay in the EU.
“We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong,” it said. “For our children and their children, we should be facing the problems of the world together and not alone.”
While the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Scudamore went as far as to pledge the support of all his member clubs to the “remain’ campaign.
However, some believe it will be a good thing for English football because it will mean more opportunities for homegrown talent, although the cost of signing them will undoubtedly go up.
Football agent Sky Andrew told ESPN. “Whatever new regulations are brought in following a British EU exit, one thing for sure is that top British players would become more expensive.
“It could be as much as 40 per cent because the football market is all about demand; that’s what dictates transfer fees. There will be fewer European players for clubs to choose from as many may not meet the criteria to play in the Premier League.
“British players are already overpriced and this will only get worse because they will be in greater demand.”
Barry Silkman, a high-profile British agent, claimed that the impending Brexit vote had already had an impact, causing the current transfer market to stagnate.
“You usually get some big deals being negotiated around this time, which are never made public,” he said. “If Britain leaves the EU the cost of domestic players would increase and that’s led to a lot of uncertainty among agents because nobody is quite sure at the moment on the final value of a player.”
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However, a contrasting point of view came from Dr Gregory Ioannidis, a sports law specialist at Sheffield Hallam University, who said any new regulations is unlikely to unduly impact the Premier League.
“The EU already recognises the special nature of sport and will probably accept a more flexible approach to the movement of European players,” Ioannidis said.
“It already has a number of specific agreements in place with non-EU states and I do not see why Britain would not be able to negotiate in similar fashion. Brexit will not necessarily be damaging for Premier League football.”
Meanwhile, Brexit and the resulting resignation of British PM David Cameron caused several British sports stars to take to social media.
Per Mertesacker will miss Arsenal’s last two games of the season after picking up a hamstring injury against Norwich last weekend.
The BFG was replaced 5 minutes into the second half by Gabriel and won’t play again until the new campaign.
Speaking to the official site, Arsene Wenger provided a team update ahead of the trip to Man City on Sunday.
“From the squad that played against Norwich last Saturday, we have lost Per Mertesacker,” he said.
“Per is out for the remaining two matches with a hamstring injury. Everyone else from last week’s squad is fit and available for selection.”
Santi Cazorla has already expressed his desire to play against City, while Jack Wilshere could be in contention for a place in the team as he ramps up his comeback.
A win for Arsenal on Sunday would guarantee at least third place in the Premier League.
“You have to sometime win 1-0 and this one of those days”.
Olivier Giroud tops the scoring charts at the Emirates this season, having netted just 12 times.
Three-time Golden Boot victor Shearer added: “I’ve been saying all season that they’re at least two players, top players short, and my view hasn’t changed on that”.
Arsenal welcomes Crystal Palace to the Emirates Stadium on April. 17 at 11 a.m. EST knowing they have to win to hold onto their Champions League place, while holding the faintest of hopes that they can still win the Premier League. “I will judge Elneny until the end of the season, but what is for sure is that he’s had a big impact – much bigger than expected”, he said.
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Palace manager Pardew said Adebayor could take inspiration from the difficulties West Ham striker Andy Carroll handed Arsenal’s back four last week in a 3-3 draw to do similar damage on Saturday.
Arsenal will now turn their turn attentions to another home game against West Brom on Thursday as they look to cement their spot in the top four. “If we can do more, we can do more but let’s not dream and focus on the next game”.
“In the first-half the possession was probably something like 97-3, but we came back and we have been strong”.
“This game should be far more straightforward – they will beat Palace“. “We have that responsibility and we have to stand up for that and continue to develop the quality of our game”. If we combined those two bets in a score-cast then we get very tempting odds of 12/1.
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Despite playing for Arsenal, Man City and Tottenham, Adebayor has never won a trophy in English football and admits it would rank as one of his greatest achievements if he can get to a final with Alan Pardew’s Eagles.
Liverpool also had the upper hand over Bournemouth as Firmino and Daniel Sturridge helped them to a 2-1 victory. In the end, we did not play with enough pace in the final third.
“Punch has that for us and it will be important on Sunday that he keeps hold of it and makes the right decisions for us”.
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PER MERTESACKER insists Arsenal's season is not over - but has called on the club's goalscorers to rediscover their killer instinct.
The Gunners were knocked out of the FA Cup yesterday as Watford secured a 2-1 win to eliminate the holders and book their own place in a Wembley semi-final.
The result means Arsenal cannot become the third team to win three successive FA Cup trophies and has seriously dented their chances of silverware of any kind this season.
However, skipper Mertesacker still believes there is something to fight for despite their latest set-back.
"It is as you can imagine, we are out of the competition and the treble dream is over, that is the conclusion.
"The season is not over. We play in a confident way, we maybe lack that bit at the end.
"What we do lack at the moment is we need to score at some point.
"It looks like we play, and play and play until the opposing team scores. That is something we need to work on.
"We had the opportunities and the possibilities when they were 2-0 up to come back and we kept going.
"You have to give credit because we kept going and created chance after chance, but at the moment we lack that killer instinct.
"We need to work on that if we want to be successful in the Premier League and the Champions League."
