Per Mertesacker has been an ever present figure at the heart of Arsenal’s defence this season. He and fellow French compatriot, Laurent Koscielny, have formed a formidable pairing at the back throughout the campaign, creating impressive records that have only occasionally but emphatically been breached. However, it has not been such an easy ride for the German international.

Mertesacker joined Arsenal from Werder Bremen in summer 2011 for £8 million to strengthen a clearly fragile back line - proven by their 8-2 defeat to Manchester United days before. Like many great Arsenal players, he did not quite fit in to England’s top division as he and many Arsenal fans would have hoped despite an impressive 75 national team caps. In his transition, the tall German seemed to find the intensity of the Premier League too much as his lack of pace clearly affected his game and there were comments made before his arrival by numerous newspapers on why he would not fit in. Bleacher Report stated that ‘’Mertesacker is on the slower side’’ and that it would ‘’get exposed in Arsenal’s high line of defence’’. The 29-year-old discussed how difficult he found early life in the capital in a recent interview with Arsenal Player. ‘’It started really tough and it started really difficult for me personally’’.

Now, however, the colossal centre-half has shown huge signs of adaptation to the Premier League along with improvements in his game and it seems that his partner in defence had been a key part of this. Mertesacker and Koscielny are both very different players in the way they approach their game but together they complement each other and this has made them an effective pairing. The big German is great in terms of positional play, his timing of the tackle and man marking whilst the energetic Frenchman is a more active player; looking to intercept balls, challenge for any loose aerial balls and use his faster pace to sweep his counterpart. This perfect match has seen the two create excellent defensive records this season, and prior. They firstly had not lost a game when playing the full 90 minutes together in two years until the disappointing 5-1 defeat to Liverpool this term. Also, the pairing had only let in one home goal in 11 games until the Bayern Munich clash in the round of 16 Champions League game. Mertesacker expressed his delight for these statistics and was somewhat amazed by them. ‘’It sounds not real for me’’ the Gunners man said. This solid twosome has even managed to keep club captain Thomas Vermaelen out of the side with only the occasional appearance in the team, rather surprising for Arsenal’s Belgian talisman who has been Arsenal’s best defender for quite some time.

Mertesacker’s outstanding form this season had been rewarded by Arsenal and Arsene Wenger with captaincy in a lot of games this campaign. Also, alongside Tomas Rosicky, he has recently signed a new contract, committing both their futures to Arsenal football club. Per Mertesacker's extension will mean he remains at Arsenal until 2017, when he will have reached the age of 32. He expressed how exultant he was with his contract. ‘’I'm really looking forward to having more years coming up with this fantastic club. The two senior figures have been praised heavily by the Arsenal boss who was very pleased that they had signed new deals. ‘’They are players with exceptional quality and experience’’ and continued by saying ‘’They have consistently proven themselves at the highest level." Could this potential extinction of Arsenal’s poor defensive reputation with Per Mertesacker at the defensive helm bring Arsenal their ever longing glory for silverware this year?