Monday 17 August 2015 14:08, UK
Per Mertesacker says Arsenal have left their lacklustre season-start behind them after clear-the-air talks.
After beginning the season with a disappointing loss to West Ham, Arsene Wenger's side kickstarted their campaign on Sunday with a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.
After taking an early lead through Olivier Giroud's acrobatic volley, they were pegged back by a 25-yard strike from Palace defender Joel Ward before securing the points when Alexis Sanchez's header was deflected into his own net by Palace captain Damien Delaney.
Mertesacker, who captained the side at Selhurst Park with regular skipper Mikel Arteta on the bench, was heavily critical of the squad's poor performance against West Ham but believes the right things were said to address the situation.
"Obviously when everything goes very smooth in pre-season, you avoid those talks which are sometimes very important," Mertesacker said.
"That (the need for those talks) was the case last week when we came out of the (West Ham) match where no one knew exactly what we did, so we just had to come back to our game.
"You could already feel something when you are in the relegation zone (in the table), and not having (produced) in that (West Ham) game what everyone expected from you, so it was important to bounce back.
"Against Palace, it was good possession, to play the ball through the midfield and penetrate them.
"Later (in the game) we made it difficult for ourselves, but overall it was a very encouraging performance from top to bottom. We were dominant and that was the key to our success.
"We were good on the break, good in the combinations, there is a lot more to come from us, that is what we need, that is our game and we need to count on that."
