When Mertesacker first arrived at Arsenal back in the summer of 2011 as a part of Arsene Wenger’s deadline day signing spree, he was tagged as a respectable backup for the in-form Thomas Vermaelen. However the Belgian was sidelined with a long term Achilles injury to give way for the BFG who made his league debut against Swansea in a 1-0 win.
And now two years later, Arsenal stand at the top of the table 2 points clear of Liverpool and have just conceded 10 goals from their 11 matches thanks to the rock solid partenrship between Mertesacker and Koscielny. For the first time in years, Arsenal’s back line looks steady and poised to take on the big guns without the fear of conceding cheap goals and for the first time they look like a back four which can do the dirty work and hold on to slender leads.
A testament to that was Arsenal’s recent games where they faced Liverpool(H), Borussia Dortmund (A) and Manchester United (A) in the space of 10 days which meant that they had to face the likes of Lewandowski, Suarez, Sturridge, Reus, Van Persie and Wayne Rooney, but despite all that they have managed to give away just one goal and maintained two clean sheets.
Coming back to the contract talks, Mertesacker signed a four deal when he first arrived at the Emirates which means the German International still has around 18 months left in his current contract. However, Dailymail reports that Arsenal are looking to extend Mertesacker’s contract and have opened talks with the Germany international over fresh terms.
The German according to the same Daily Mail report, is currently earning £65,000-per-week and will get a bumper pay rise along with a four year extension.
So, does the defender deserve a pay rise and a contract extension? Well, the obvious answer would be yes. Let’s have a look at some of his stats taken from Squawka.com
His average of 6 defensive actions per game, is only bettered by Koscielny in the league, and his average defensive duels won stands at 66% which is again amongst the top in the league.
Arsenal have lost two big games so far this season, the one against Manchester United last Sunday and the one against Chelsea in the Capital One Cup, and the crazy thing is the German defender has missed both the games. This is the kind of impact that the defender has on the Arsenal backline. His organisational skills, his reading of the game and positioning behind pacey strikers have been the telling reason behind Arsenal’s defensive record this season.