Arsenal: Per Mertesacker an expiring solution to an ageless problem

Arsenal has had this one particularly pesky void that they’ve been dealing with for years, and Per Mertesacker may be a solution. Or, may have been, rather.

Arsenal have long had one, massive glaring problem in the leadership department. A leader is someone who motivates, not just with words, but with action, and the Gunners have struggled in recent years with nabbing someone who can do both at the same time. Like being able to pat your head without being able to scratch your belly.

This problem existed years ago, going back at least half a decade, probably more. And while Per Mertesacker has been there throughout the void, it is Mertesacker who is looking the most competent when it comes to stepping up at long last.

Since the loss at Watford, a loss that was horrifically unlucky, paired with being tremendously futile in terms of effort, only one man has been on top of the press and of saying the right thing and that man is Mertesacker.

But words are meaningless. Especially on a team that has talked the talk for so long but have proven incapable of walking the walk time and again.

The difference between what Mertesacker is doing and what his fellow Gunners are doing is that the big German is stepping up on the pitch.

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Stop and think for a moment – when is the last time you witnessed an Arsenal player go above and beyond what was expected of him. Or, rather, go above and beyond what we thought he was capable of?

I’ll answer that for you – it was Per Mertesacker against Watford. There have been so few examples of players capable of stepping up. Nacho Monreal did it recently against West Brom, but he’s not a leader off the pitch.

Mertesacker has done it, and he has done it before as well. Think of Chelsea, FA Cup Final. That was a massive fixture, one that no one gave the Gunners a chance in and the big man stepped up, took control and rose to – and above – the occasion.

That is what a leader does.

This void that Arsenal still has looks like it won’t be filled by anyone, and the unfortunate thing is that the one man who looks adamant that he wants to fill it is retiring at the end of the year.

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On the bright side, that leadership mentality from the German will carry on as he leads the next generation of Gunners to, hopefully, be much more determined than the current generation.

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