Per Mertesacker was pleased with the team’s defending against West Brom yesterday, praising his team-mates further forward for helping out the back four.

Speaking to Arsenal Player after the match, the German hopes that the team will maintain these performances over the difficult Christmas period.

“We have to defend better as a team, but you could see today we won a lot of balls in their half so you could see everyone is involved with the defence. Everybody wanted to get the ball very early.”

“It’s a different mood than after the Swansea game, of course. Everybody’s just happy that we got this win today and we deserved it because we took the initiative from the very beginning. We wanted it today and you could see this on the pitch.

“We have to climb up the league table, this is just the beginning. We have to keep going like this. That’s vital for the next few weeks. December is very busy for us but let’s see how we cope with this situation.”

The defender added that some recent criticism has been a bit harsh, with the team still in all competitions and not doing too badly in the league.

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