News

Per - We must be brave in Monaco

Per Mertesacker says Arsenal must be “brave” if they are to turn around their Champions League last-16 tie with Monaco.

The Gunners slipped to a 3-1 defeat in the first leg at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night and now face an uphill battle to progress.

Mertesacker admits it was a bad night at the office, but says the team will give everything in a bid to make amends in the return leg.

"We never give up. That’s always the sense of our game, even if the expectations will be low now"

Per Mertesacker

“Overall it’s very disappointing for us,” he told Arsenal Player. “We came out quite well, tried to put pressure on them and created a few half-chances. After, we dropped and fought not to concede.

“That would have been the key for us, then we conceded that goal with a heavy deflection - but that can happen. I thought in the second half we exaggerated a bit, looked a bit over motivated at times and they got us on the break.

“That’s what we expected, but when you try to come back as quickly as possible, you can make some mistakes. That’s what hurt at the end.

“We never give up. That’s always the sense of our game, even if the expectations will be low now. It’s easy to write us off now but it’s just half-time. A lot of things can happen over there and we will try.

“As we have seen we have been remarkable at bouncing back from disappointing results. That will be the key - to be absolutely brave and try to be on the front foot from the start to the end. There are still 90 minutes to play. That is our big target there.”

See Full List

Fixtures & Results

Premier League
Ticket Info