Per Mertesacker urges Arsenal to show they deserve a seat at football’s top table

Per Mertesacker today cast doubt on the quality of Arsenal’s squad and challenged his team-mates to prove they have the talent to compete with the best teams at home and abroad.

Arsene Wenger’s side have lost their last two games, at Norwich and at home against Schalke, casting doubt on the depth of the squad.

Despite Schalke’s 2-0 win, Arsenal are still favourites to qualify for the knockout stages after winning their opening two matches but Mertesacker stressed that they cannot afford too many more mistakes, especially as Premier League leaders Chelsea are already 10 points ahead of them.

“We have great players with great potential but at the moment you cannot feel we are a strong squad,” he said. “We have to learn quickly from what happened in the last two matches.

“If we do not find these solutions, it is going to be difficult both in the Premier League and in the Champions League as well. The international break was a bit of a killer for us and we have to find our strength again quickly.

“We have the potential in us but first we have to fight. We are playing Queens Park Rangers on Saturday but it will be the same as at Norwich. They were at the bottom of the table as well and we did not find solutions against a defensive side.

“We’ve had a difficult week and our results were kind of an accident, so now we have to find our game again. We have to be positive ahead of the QPR match. Sometimes you need one game to find your qualities again, so let’s make sure it’s Saturday’s.”

Arsenal had plenty of possession in the first half last night but they were never incisive enough and it was Schalke who created the better chances. The pattern continued after the interval and the Bundesliga team finally earned their reward thanks to late goals from Dutch pair Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Ibrahim Afellay.

Arsenal’s next game in Europe is the return fixture in Gelsenkirchen next month before they face Montpellier at home and Olympiakos away in the closing matches.

Before those games, Arsenal must take care of domestic business. After facing QPR at Emirates Stadium, they travel to Reading in the Capital One Cup next Tuesday and then tackle Manchester United at Old Trafford, where they lost 8-2 last season.

Midfielder Mikel Arteta said: “The way we are giving the points away is not good enough. We are controlling most of the games but then make mistakes which are costing us points and we cannot allow that to happen.

“When we face teams such as QPR and Norwich, they make it hard for us but we have to bounce back. We have only two days now to put this result behind us and hopefully we can get a win on Saturday.”