Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has backed Arsène Wenger despite the club’s lack of spending over the course of the summer.

Petr Čech was the only addition to the first team squad, but the German defender is certain that Wenger has done everything right.

“I think he would’ve liked to make us stronger but only with the right man who would help us immediately,” Mertesacker told Sportstudio. “I believe it was difficult in this transfer window to get something cheap. Maybe the money was there but he doesn’t spend for the sake of spending.”

The Arsenal manager continuously stressed the importance of cohesion over the course of the summer.

Years of losing key players has come to an end, and Wenger can now keep the core of his team together to slowly build around if and when there is a need. Mertesacker echoed the sentiment of his manager, mentioning how vital cohesion is as we look to move forward.

“He’s hoping that we can find ourselves as a team even more. After successes in the FA Cup in the past two years we stayed together as a team and this cohesion is more important to him at the moment.

“He has great faith in his players, that’s something to point out as well, I think. With all those sums being paid that don’t really seem healthy anymore he’s a calm anchor, which is criticised.

“I think he still trusts his players a lot, I have benefitted from that a lot in the past, and so we have to wait how the season will develop and we do have a very good squad to keep up with the top.”

The Arsenal defender also mentioned the squad depth, and whether or not signing anyone else really would have been wise.

In the German’s absence, Arsenal have played with Gabriel and Calum Chambers at the back. Despite his foolish red card on Saturday, the Brazilian has been incredibly impressive while Chambers – who is still just 20 – has huge potential. He calmly and excellently took Gabriel’s place at Stamford Bridge and was untroubled though Arsenal only had 10 men.

“We have two options in every position, so it’s not like I can lean back,” Mertesacker explained. “We have four centre-backs now, I can’t lean back at all. The manager feels that too, he has a lot of faith. He’ll get a huge headache when he keeps buying players and doesn’t know whom to field, he has to keep everyone happy too!”

Thanks to @nessa1909 for help with the translation of Mertesacker’s full interview, which you can find here.