Arsenal defender Skhodran Mustafi has revealed how a team meeting organized by Captain Per Mertesacker led to a upturn in the teams fortunes after a recent run of three consecutive premier league defeats.
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Arsenal have lost eight games in all competitions already in 2018 and have only just started showing signs of getting back to their best with two wins over AC Milan in both the legs in the Europa League and adding a 3-0 revenge triumph over Watford in the Premier League.
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Image Obtained via Zimbio.com
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After what was an extremely difficult and frustrating spell which had left the club out of the Emirates FA Cup and 13 points adrift of the top four in the Premier League, Mustafi has gone at length to describe how a team inquest led at the behalf of Captain Mertesacker has led to the club recovering from their drastic slump and going on to record wins over AC Milan home and away and a convincing sweet victory over Watford.
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Speaking to the Arsenal official website, Mustafi was quick to acknowledge about how disappointing the season had gone so far with them starting by aiming for much bigger things than what they are competing for presently.
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Speaking on the teams disappointment, here is what he had to say about that and the team meeting led by Mertesacker which helped steady the ship :
“To be honest, this season has been more disappointing for us because we had bigger targets,” Mustafi told Arsenal Player.[spacer height=”20px”]
“One really big positive thing is that to be able to recover from such a period when everything goes bad and you’re not in form, to be close together and come out of it as a team is a really big, massive thing.[spacer height=”20px”]
“Everyone knew it was a difficult period,” [spacer height=”20px”]
“The meeting was about trying to listen to different opinions, different ideas and different feelings, and I think we found a way to try to change a bit.[spacer height=”20px”]
“It’s not that easy because one meeting is not going to change a lot, especially not during the season when you’re playing every three days, but it was important to speak our opinions out loud.[spacer height=”20px”]
Overall it was about giving 110 per cent to try to get out of it, and I think we managed it well.
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With the disappointment of losing 3-0 ignominiously to League leaders Manchester City, crashing out of the FA Cup to a championship side and falling 13 points short of the nearest top four challengers, Its been quite a disastrous season to say the least and precisely why according to Mustafi an efficient intervention by all the players in an honest open team meeting was that much vital in pulling the team together and getting out of the slump together as a team and not as individuals. [spacer height=”30px”]
Beating AC Milan twice and Watford at home can barely be considered as their vindication for that had previously gone wrong but its certainly a start at point where had we been out of the Europa League, Wenger would have surely been out of a job next season. Such is the potential tumultuous situation of the Global fan base than any loss at any point of time will once again get them out on in front of the gates with pitchforks calling for someone’s head and more often than not its Arsene’s . [spacer height=”30px”]
We have now to look forward to what is in front of us and right now that is a bunch or ogres visiting us on our home soil led by a pretty decent chap who will surely not last long at the helm of the army of ogres. [spacer height=”30px”]
Viva Per Mertesacker and long may we continue our just started winning run of three matches.
Writer who specializes in overcoming the yearly heartbreak of being an Arsenal supporter. Tries to make life better by venting out thoughts, writings about anything and everythings thats exciting about Arsenal FC.
Always up for debates and discussions but only about Arsenal
