Arsenal's Per Mertesacker has the omens on his side for FA Cup final

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/10/per-mertesacker-omens-arsenal-hull-city-fa-cup-final

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When Per Mertesacker reflects on the lone winner's medal from his 11-year career, the memories are bittersweet. The Arsenal central defender can call himself a German Cup winner and he did as much as anybody to help Werder Bremen win the trophy in 2009.

Without his goal in the semi-final against Hamburg Bremen might not have reached the final. The tie finished 1-1 and his old club advanced on penalties but Mertesacker would miss the final against Bayer Leverkusen because of injury. He also missed Bremen's appearance in the Uefa Cup final, which they lost to Shakhtar Donetsk, at the end of that season.

Silverware is on his mind and, if the narrative for Arsenal in the FA Cup final against Hull City on Saturday will major on the quest to end the nine-year trophy drought, it stands to banish plenty of demons for Mertesacker, too.

The 29-year-old joined Bremen from Hannover in 2006 just as they won the German League Cup and he neither featured in the final against Bayern Munich nor considered himself a part of the victory. He was also a beaten cup finalist in 2010, when Bayern hammered Bremen 4-0.

"The end of that 2009 season was absolutely amazing because we played Hamburg in the cup semi-final, in both legs of the Uefa Cup semi-final and in the league in the space of two and a half weeks," Mertesacker says. "Hamburg were our big rivals. But I got injured in the Uefa Cup and that was not good for me. I was really up for that cup final.

"It felt strange not to feature in the final but my goal in the semi-final gave me the confidence to say: 'Yes, I am a cup winner. I contributed a lot to that team.' But I'm really up for another cup. When you take part in a final, it will be something more meaningful."

Mertesacker will take a professional lifetime's worth of pent-up frustration into the final against Hull. Neither he nor Arsenal dare countenance defeat. But the omens appear to be on his side. He scored the priceless goal in Arsenal's semi-final against Wigan Athletic at Wembley, which finished 1-1 before his club advanced on penalties (sound familiar?) while he can recall with some fondness the identity of Bremen's winning goalscorer in the 2009 final – Mesut Özil, who has since followed him to Arsenal.

Then there is the Wembley factor. Mertesacker has played there twice this season, for Germany against England in November, when he scored the game's only goal, and against Wigan in the semi-final, when he scored and won again.

"Wembley has been brilliant," Mertesacker says. "The first game gave me confidence for the second game and the second game gives me a lot of confidence for this third game.

"I heard about the tradition of the FA Cup when I was a boy and I heard that it was always more huge than the German Cup. But obviously I was more involved in our German Cup in those days. Everyone was up for it. Even smaller teams could get into the semis or the final and that was always something special for me as a child.

"We finally won it against Leverkusen and Mesut scored the goal. So some memories have come together again and we will try to secure the FA Cup for Arsenal. It wouldn't be a disaster [to lose] but our expectations are absolutely to win. It's really something about confidence now."

Arsenal strengthened theirs against Wigan, having danced with disaster as they trailed to Jordi Gómez's penalty, which Mertesacker conceded for a lunge at Callum McManaman. On the back of a run of nine points from nine Premier League matches, it seemed as though defeat could pull down the curtain on the Arsène Wenger era.

Mertesacker's 82nd-minute equaliser triggered an outpouring of emotion and it has had a fortifying effect on the side. Arsenal have since won all four of their league fixtures to secure Champions League qualification and their visit to Norwich City City on Sunday will be a stress-free occasion.

"When Wigan scored [in the 63rd minute], everyone was not sure what was going on, everything was questioned," Mertesacker says. "It felt really strange. I thought that we needed something really special and I was really happy when I scored.

"The pressure will come back in the final but we have raised our confidence so much in the last few weeks. It's different now to the semi-final."