Per Mertesacker has urged his Arsenal teammates to concentrate on themselves instead listening to outside remarks.

Per is keen for his Arsenal teammates to move on from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Watford and has urged them to concentrate on themselves rather than outside criticism.

When asked about Troy Deeney’s now highly publicised ‘cojones’ comments, Per said, “I don’t know what he said. I don’t pay attention. Anyways it was after the game I think, so I didn’t watch it.

“We should concentrate on ourselves first of all, there are so many guys involved and so many opinions, which is fine, but we need to focus on ourselves and learn lessons from that.

“If we start to listen to too many people it’s not worth it, honestly, I need to look at myself and think what could have been done better.

“Afterwards, it’s easy to judge and easy to say words and think we are lacking something. We have to think how we can provide better performances, especially away from home, where it gets tight and difficult.

“That is all going on here. I’m not a favourite of listening too much to other guys. I haven’t done that in 15 years, I’m not going to do that in my last year.”

per mertesacker watford
WATFORD, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 14: Per Mertesacker of Arsenal looks dejected in defence the Premier League match between Watford and Arsenal at Vicarage Road on October 14, 2017 in Watford, England. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)

Per scored the Gunners’ only goal against the Hornets at the weekend and was probably Arsenals best player, winning a total of 13 (!) aerial duels. Therefore, although he’s generally not been fantastic this season, he doesn’t have to do much soul-searching after his performance on Saturday.

There are, however, multiple players who do need to take a long, hard look at themselves and whether they actually want to play professional football at any level. Or, you know, be taken seriously as athletes.

While Deeney’s ‘cojones’ comment, in which he claimed that if a player makes a physical first challenge on an Arsenal player they’ll back off, seemed a little petty at the time, it was pretty valid. And perhaps Per should be telling the players this themselves instead of merely encouraging them to stick their fingers in their ears.

For all we know, he has.

All I know is that whatever is being said to them at the moment isn’t working.