Per Mertesacker hits back at critics after brilliant performance in Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph
The BFG was a man mountain at the heart of the Gunners' defence to write himself into the club's folklore
PER MERTESACKER assured his place in Arsenal folklore with one of the greatest comebacks in football history.
The man known as BFG lived up to his nickname as the man mountain at the heart of the Gunners’ makeshift defence.
In his first full game for more than a year, the giant German international went toe-to-toe with Chelsea bully-boy Diego Costa and never took a backward step.
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And it was the hurt of being consigned to the soccer scrapheap which inspired the 32-year-old World Cup winner to the performance of his career.
Sidelined since last summer by a serious knee injury, Mertesacker refused to accept that his Emirates career was over even when the club paid £35million to sign Shkodran Mustafi at the start of the season.
And with Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny and Gabriel all unavailable at the weekend, Arsenal’s last resort turned in an epic display of strength, defiance and cool-headedness.
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Former Gunners centre-half Martin Keown went so far as to claim: “This should be called the Mertesacker Final, because I can’t believe the performance he put in.
“He’s played one game all season and it’s the biggest game of the lot. To perform as he did under that pressure was magnificent.”
Modest Mertesacker was simply grateful for the opportunity to captain the team to glory and show there is still life in the old dog.
He said: “The more people write me off, the stronger I get.
“We had three centre-backs missing and the manager didn’t go small. He went with the big fella and I wanted to give something back to this club.
“I expect myself to perform to that level every single week. I don’t know if I’m capable of that, but I’ve done it for the last 15 years.
“The BFG to have this opportunity and for the trust and support I have had from my team-mates and my manager.
“Being sidelined for such a long time, I’ve suffered a lot this season.
“I wanted to contribute on the pitch so to be able to lead the team out for the first time officially as captain was a very proud moment for me.
“Chelsea have had a brilliant season and they deserved to be Champions, but we have shown we are capable of big performances.
“We were not considered to be the favourites, but our mind-set before the game was that anything can happen at Wembley.”