Per won’t be wound up by fiery striker
®
PER MERTESACKER claims he will not make the same mistake when he tackles Diego Costa at Wembley.
The last time the German centreback faced the 25-goal Chelsea striker he was sent off for hacking him down as Arsenal lost 1-0 at the Emirates in January 2016.
Arsene Wenger accused Costa of conning the referee that day, but Mertesacker insists he will not let it happen again in today’s FA Cup Final.
The 32-year-old is set for his first start in over a year as Laurent Koscielny is banned and Shkodran Mustafi’s inclusion is doubtful after a concussion.
Mertesacker says he won’t let Arsenal down by falling for Costa’s dirty tricks, saying: “He is one of the main threats. He knows what he is doing. “Especially in the box, he is a scoring machine. But I won’t do that on my own. I think we need to turn up as a team.
“Chelsea have had a fantastic season. There is a lot of responsibility for every one of us to defend.
“I have forgotten all about what happened with him. You cannot think about it. You have to learn from your mistakes. That is all I try to do.
“I try to think about what went wrong and open myself to criticism, but face the next day and be intelligent enough to cope with another situation when it comes.”
Mertesacker had surgery on a knee injury he suffered in a friendly last July and only made his first appearance this season from the bench against Everton last weekend. He’s been training since February but has not even played reserve team football, and knows he will have his work cut out keeping Costa quiet.
But he has vowed to repay Arsenal’s faith in him after the club exercised an option to extend his contract by a year while he was still injured.
Sidelined
Mertesacker, who is expected to captain the team today, feared his Arsenal career could be over.
He said: “Yeah, you have to consider that, definitely, when you’re injured and that was long term.
“The manager backed me up, made me captain, knowing I was going to be sidelined for more than six months.
“Obviously I’m grateful, so I want to