We’ll handle pressure in Dortmund, claims Per

 
Borussia Dortmund's Polish striker Robert Lewandowski (C) vies with Arsenal's German defender Per Mertesacker (R) and French defender Laurent Koscielny (L) during the UEFA Champions League Group F football match between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates Stadium, London
ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images
James Olley5 November 2013

Per Mertesacker believes Arsenal’s fine Premier League form has given them the composure to handle the threat of Borussia Dortmund tomorrow night.

Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Liverpool took them five points clear at the top of the table at the start of a tough week, including a trip to last season’s Champions League finalists.

Dortmund’s victory at Emirates Stadium two weeks ago tightened up Group F with three teams now on six points.

Arsenal need to win two of their three remaining games to be certain of qualification but Mertesacker (above) believes the team are displaying a maturity capable of handling such pressure.

He said: “We are relaxed. We are showing in the Premier League that we are one of the best teams.

“Against Liverpool, we can be happy how we coped with both [Luis] Suarez and [Daniel] Sturridge. Especially in the first half they could not create any chances. I think we really deserve that win.

“It’s difficult to play Dortmund especially away from home but we have to keep our confidence. I think we are on a high level. We need to get a good result to stay in the competition.”

Dortmund remain in good health domestically as evidenced by their 6-1 win against Stuttgart last weekend. Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick to temporarily send them above Bayern Munich before Pep Guardiola’s side edged a point clear once more with a 2-1 victory at Hoffenheim.

Mertesacker said: “I did not watch it but I know the result. It describes the season of Dortmund. I did not expect anything else.

“It is hard to describe what we will expect there. Two years ago it was a tough game and some of us were happy with one point.”

Arsenal drew 1-1 in Dortmund two years ago but their hopes of improving on that were hit today when Jack Wilshere missed training due to an ankle problem. There are doubts over whether Kieran Gibbs (calf) will be fit to play tomorrow.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in