Granit Xhaka believes Per Mertesacker remains Arsenal’s “leader” despite not having played for the club since April.
Manager Arsene Wenger confirmed yesterday that Mertesacker has agreed a new one-year deal with the Gunners after the club exercised an option to keep him, a move that was in some doubt given the severity of the 32-year-old’s knee injury.
Mertesacker is still a few weeks away from returning to action as he rebuilds his fitness but Xhaka was immediately struck by the centre-back’s influence at the club following his £34million summer switch from Borussia Monchengladbach.
“Unfortunately I have not had the chance to train with Per since I arrived here, actually,” he said.
“Straight away, I noticed his importance in the dressing room because he is a real leader here and hopefully he can get back healthy and we can have him for the second half of the season.”
Mertesacker will be missing for Sunday’s visit of Burnley and almost certainly the entirety of a three-game period which Xhaka believes could define Arsenal’s Premier League season.
Watford visit Emirates Stadium the following Tuesday before a League hiatus for the FA Cup fourth round ends with a crucial trip to Chelsea.
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Last weekend’s comfortable win at Swansea ended a run of three successive League games on the road without a victory and Xhaka said: “Firstly, it was important to win at Swansea in the way we did, winning 4-0 there, because we know we have got these two home games coming up against Burnley and Watford.
“To be honest, I see it in the same way as the boss – these next three games could really tell a lot about what direction we are going to go in this season.”
Arsenal needed a stoppage-time goal from Laurent Koscielny to win the reverse fixture in October but while only Tottenham (29) and Chelsea (27) have taken more points at home than Burnley (25) this season, they have the worst away record in the League, losing eight of their nine away games and drawing once.
“They are a team who play really direct and are quite compact defensively as well ,that makes it difficult,” he said. “But we are playing at home and we want to dominate the game and get the three points.
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“Against these sorts of teams it is very important to score as early as possible and it puts them under pressure and makes them come out a big more.
“We want to start well, we want to start positively, we want to force mistakes and if we do that I'm sure we will be successful in this game.”
