Per Mertesacker: Criticism makes me stronger

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29 May, 2017

Arsene Wenger reaffirms his loyalty to Arsenal after winning the FA Cup for the seventh time.

"We have a board meeting on Tuesday, and on Wednesday or Thursday it will all be very clear", he said.

And yet Arsenal still ended the campaign with a cup victory that Wenger puts on a par with his last Premier League success in the unbeaten 2003-04 season. We have still a lot to prove and this team wants that challenge especially next season. Twenty-two people were killed and many more injured after an explosion at Manchester Arena and they were remembered here.

Wenger is out of contract at the club at the end of June.

Thibaut Courtois was perhaps the only player exempt from criticism as Chelsea slumped to a 2-1 loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup final, the Chelsea goalkeeper conceding twice but also saving Chelsea's bacon a couple times.

"Per Mertesacker for me is a fantastic example for any young professional football player", Wenger said. Sometimes I make this change when we were losing or drawing and to have more quality balls when the rhythm is lower.

Aaron Ramsey headed the victor for Arsenal against 10-man Chelsea after Diego Costa had cancelled out a controversial opener from Alexis Sanchez.

"Obviously it was a great performance", Welbeck told BBC Sport.

The Arsenal captain had played just 37 minutes of first-team football since April past year but was chosen to lead the team out at Wembley, repaying the faith with a man-of-the match performance.

He said: "I don't think I can answer that question at the moment". You can see from today that we are a good side that can get better still with a little strengthening, I spend every minute of my season with commitment to this club.

"I will remain (at Chelsea) if there is intention from the club and the coach for me to stay, but if they want to sell me to bring in another striker, I will go".

With Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, Gabriel and Kieran Gibbs all unavailable in a defensive selection crisis, the former Germany worldwide was named in the starting line-up by Arsene Wenger for the first time since April 2016.

Despite being all at sea Chelsea did threaten with Costa denied by a perfectly-timed tackle by Per Mertesacker who was making his first start for Arsenal for 13 months.


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