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 admits Arsenal lack the necessary killer instinct in front of goal after their FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Watford dealt their hopes of securing any silverware this season a major blow.
The FA Cup holders were condemned to a third consecutive home defeat as goals from Odion Ighalo and Adlène Guedioura put Watford 2-0 ahead before Arsenal – who had 20 shots but just four on target – registered through Danny Welbeck.
With Arsenal now facing an exit from the Champions League on Wednesday, currently 2-0 down before the trip to Barcelona, Arsène Wenger has come in for increased criticism while the Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes labelled the Gunners ‘a small team’ after Sunday’s clash.
Wenger reacted angrily to the criticism but Mertesacker acknowledged he could understand the negativity and said Arsenal should be scoring more goals judging by the amount of chances they are creating.
“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,” said Mertesacker. “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.
“In the box we played and always found good positions, with the man in the right position but we lacked that relaxation, even to hit the target we did not do that sometimes. We missed it too often.
“The desire to play together and to be good at a team is there, you can feel that, even if there is a bit of negativity I can understand. I want as well that we go through here, I think we had the chances and we played in the right way apart from the fact we didn’t score. That is something you need to do in football if you want to be successful. It looks like the longer the game goes, we rush and rush our decisions. It is still a learning process for us as a team.”
After Wednesday’s last 16 second leg at the Camp Nou Arsenal face Everton at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Saturday with Wenger’s side currently in third place, six points behind second-placed Tottenham with the leaders Leicester a further two ahead before their game against Newcastle on Monday night.
“The season is not over. We play in a confident way, we maybe lack that bit at the end. What is really important in football, to be successful we need to score,” added Mertesacker. “We cannot afford to concede [against Barcelona]. We have to go there and try to attack, no matter what. That is the only possibility we have.
“We can be fortunate to have such a big game in front of us. I cannot predict, it is really hard. It is the ultimate team at the minute, so we are straight away under pressure and we have to go away from home.”
The Mirror describes today as "perhaps the best day of the year for football fans." Although The Mirror may be overstating it just a tad, there is reason for excitement. With the FA Cup third round draw today, Arsenal begin their second consecutive FA Cup campaign as holders, having defeated Aston VIlla 4-0 in the 2015 final at Wembley Stadium back on May 30, with goals coming from Theo Walcott, Alexis, Per Mertesacker, and Olivier Giroud. Arsenal are now the most successful club in FA Cup history, having won the competition twelve times to Manchester United's eleven. Arsenal fans could only have dreamed of such a cracking final, and will surely be hoping for another chance to see the boys lift a trophy at Wembley after this campaign as well.
As you probably know, the FA Cup is a competition with a long and rich history. Clubs from the four top tiers of English soccer (the Premier League and the Football League, which consists of the Championship, League One, and League Two) automatically qualify. The competition begins in August, wherein teams from the ninth tier and below compete in the Extra Preliminary Round. Premier League teams enter in the third round draw, which is today.
The draw for every round sees each team assigned a number which is then placed inside a ball and chosen at random. This means that Arsenal, in ball number two (ball number one is occupied by Alphabet League winners AFC Bournemouth), could face a number of interesting opponents, including Manchester City, Manchester United, Leicester City, Tottenham, or even a plucky team in or near the relegation zone trying to make their season mean something. Like Chelsea. There are sixty-four balls in the pot and only twenty of them are Premier League teams, so statistically we're more likely to go up against someone more like QPR or Rotherham United than the likes of a Premier League club, but stranger things have happened. Also, one can never write off lower-tier opposition; they often come in with nothing to lose and give it their all.
The draw takes place today at 7pm GMT / 2pm ET / 11am PT, with the third round matches to be played the weekend of January 8-11, 2016. If for some reason you get the BBC, it will be shown live on BBC Two, although it's much more likely you'll just follow it on Twitter and in the comments here.
The full ball list is below, with some balls being reserved for the winners of matches not yet played. Here's to another defense!
It was enough to have the man compensate for his errors by heading in a go-ahead goal in the early moments of the second half. It has happened already.
With fellow midfielder Francis Coquelin already out with his own knee problem, Wenger's options in the middle of the park are limited.
Flamini and Ramsey were paired together against Sunderland with the latter only just back from a hamstring injury. He blazed it over the bar, and there would have been fury if he had have scored as he looked to be offside. "There are a lot of young players waiting to come through, and we have a lot of quality training with us every day".
Campbell and Arsenal will return to the pitch on Wednesday for Champion's League action when they take on Greece's Olympiacos in the tournament's group stages. "It was frustrating but I'm encouraged by the players' performance".
Arsenal battled their way to a vital win against Sunderland at the Emirates on Saturday, after the visitors produced an impressive display which arguably merited a share of the point.
Ramsey knows he will not be awarded the same licence to get forward in such a game but believes the Gunners can get the required result.
Allardyce has now been in charge since October 9 and has led Sunderland to three wins in six league games - but felt this was the best he had seen in that time.
Allardyce, who will be without injured duo Sebastian Larsson and Jermain Defoe, said: "I've never won at Arsenal with any of my teams - drawn a few, but never won".
In front of him, we have Hector Bellerin, freshly recovered from his own injury as well as Per Mertesacker and Nacho Monreal, who have both managed to keep all their limbs intact for another week. We were edgy in the first half but in the second half we showed the mental strength, desire and more incisiveness even though it was not ideal.
Olivier Giroud (L) celebrates scoring his team's second goal during of the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium in London on December 5, 2015.
"We have to find a new balance, and that doesn't come immediately - you could see that in our fluency and continuity of passing".
Now we get to look to Europe, and a match that determines whether we get to go to the knockout stage or if we get relegated to UEFA's version of the NIT.
Calum Chambers says Germand World Cup winning centre back Per Metersacker is 'always there to help me out'.
The young defender arrived at Arsenal at the beginning of last season as a right back, but has been swiftly moved into the centre of defence.
And Chambers says he is learning from the more experienced defenders in the Arsenal squad, namely Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel.
'I speak to Per a lot,' Chambers told Arsenal Player. 'Per is always there to help me out.
'In training if I ever need someone or I'm a bit confused I ask Per, Koscielny or Gabriel what they would do.
'They always tell me what they would do and it is good to learn from as they are top-quality players.
Chambers moved to north London from Southampton in the summer of 2014, following in the footsteps of the likes of Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
And the 20-year-old claimed it was the reputation of Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger for developing young talent that saw him make the move.
'Wenger's presence was a massive factor,' he added.
'Theo and Alex came from Southampton as well and they've both come through to the first team.
'Wenger's renowned for bringing young players through and developing them. That was a big factor in why I chose to come here, to work with him. I haven't regretted it one bit.'
Per Mertesacker has described Arsenal's 3-0 victory over Manchester United last Sunday as a special performance from his side.
Arsenalheaded into the clash against rivals United under a lot of pressure following their shock 3-2 loss against Olympiakos in the midweek Champions League clash.
To the surprise of many, the Gunners put in a fantastic display both in attack as well as at the back to claim a comfortable win, prompting Mertesacker to lavished praise on the performance from his teammates, labelling it as 'special'.
Speaking to Arsenal Player, Mertesacker said: "We always want to give the fans special moments. A special performance was absolutely required after what happened against Olympiacos.
"[We were told to] do what we are best at and to go at full intensity, especially at home. Have no regrets and to focus on our job which is to have good possession in the final third, and play with tempo and speed.
"It worked completely because we gave everything from the start without any hesitation and that is what makes people happy, seeing us play in that way.
"We need to focus on ourselves and manage to do that in the first 20 minutes like we did against Manchester United and defend the way did together as a unit. You could see all the doubts that came after the game against Olympiakos go if we remind ourselves that we are really good.
"We need to have a certain consistency [in the league] otherwise it is going to be difficult. But, if you get wins against the good teams then it will breed confidence for the whole team and we look forward to the next few Premier League games now."
Per Mertesacker has revealed that Arsene Wenger instructed Arsenal to start at “full intensity” against Manchester United last weekend, as they scored all three goals in their 3-0 win in the opening 20 minutes, as reported by the club’s official website.
The Gunners blitzed United at the start of the game, racing into a two-goal lead after just seven minutes thanks to strikes from Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
The Chile international doubled his tally after 20 minutes with a sweet strike, as the North Londoners bounced back brilliantly from their Champions League disappointment just days earlier.
Arsenal were beaten 3-2 at the Emirates by Olympiacos last Tuesday, leaving them bottom of their Champions League group with no points from two games. Wenger’s side will next face a double header against Bayern Munich.
The bleak atmosphere around North London was palpable following that game, but it all changed on Sunday.
Per Mertesacker has won 88% of his headed duels in the Premier League this season.
The Gunners looked lethargic against the Greek giants, but Mertesacker has revealed that Wenger made sure that wasn’t the case against Louis van Gaal’s men.
The 31-year-old said: “[We were told to] do what we are best at and to go at full intensity, especially at home. Have no regrets and to focus on our job which is to have good possession in the final third, and play with tempo and speed.
“It worked completely because we gave everything from the start without any hesitation and that is what makes people happy, seeing us play in that way.”
Mertesacker has had a stop-start season thus far, missing four of Arsenal’s opening eight Premier League games, including the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last month.
In his four appearances, the World Cup winner has won 85% of his average duels, averaging 10 defensive actions-per-game and has recorded an average pass accuracy of 89%.
Mertesacker’s defensive actions this term.
The victory over United lifted Arsenal into second place on 16 points, just two adrift of leaders Manchester City, who regained their lead at the top of the table thanks to their thumping 6-1 win over Newcastle last weekend.
Next up for the Gunners following the international break is an away clash against Watford next weekend.
PER MERTESACKER has revealed Arsene Wenger told the Arsenal players to throw caution to the wind and go all out to beat Manchester United.
The Gunners recorded a convincing 3-0 victory over the Red Devils at the Emirates, scoring all their goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game.
It was their first Premier League win over United since May 2011, when they saw of Sir Alex Ferguson's team 1-0.
And Mertesacker believes it was just the response that was needed after a shocking home defeat to Olympiakos in the Champions League.
He said: "We always want to give the fans special moments.
"A special performance was absolutely required after what happened against Olympiakos.
"We were told to do what we are best at and to go at full intensity, especially at home. Have no regrets and to focus on our job which is to have good possession in the final third, and play with tempo and speed.
"It worked completely because we gave everything from the start without any hesitation and that is what makes people happy, seeing us play in that way."
Arsenal now sit in second place following the win, leap-frogging rivals United on goal difference, just two points behind league leaders Manchester City.
