Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has revealed that he was advised to ensure his family stayed away from the Emirates Stadium last night due to safety reasons.
Arsenal’s 3-1 victory over FC Cologne was delayed by an hour as masses of German fans descended on the Emirates Stadium on the club’s first European appearance for 25 years. Many were thought to be ticketless but broke through security cordons forcing the London Metropolitan Police to draft in reinforcements.
Eventually, it was decided that it was safer for the game to go ahead than to disperse the fans back into London at such late notice.
Per Mertesacker leaves the pitch following Arsenal’s victory over Cologne on Thursday
Police made five arrests over the course of a hectic evening at the Emirates Stadium
Asked if it was the correct decision for the game to go on, Mertesacker said: ‘I have no idea. I don’t know what happened outside, I just wanted to make sure my family is ok.
Some people said ‘tell them to stay at home’, because there were such big problems here outside of the stadium. So mixed feelings, but at the end we were just happy, to have played and have finished the game today.’
For a while it was unclear whether the game would go ahead at all and the uncertainty could be seen in Arsenal’s shaky opening period in which they went into the break 1-0 down.
Mertesacker added: ‘It was difficult to handle because we were already here in the dressing room and then we found out very late that we extended it to another hour. It’s kind of annoying, you want to find out if you actually play or not.
Arsenal will conduct a full review following chaos caused by Cologne fans on Thursday night
Some Cologne fans with tickets for Arsenal sections tried to hurdle barriers into the away end
That was in doubt as well. But we wanted to play, we wanted desperately to play, not to play tomorrow or whenever. Eventually everyone made sure that we can continue. We are quite happy with the way it ended, but it took us a long time to get going here really.’
Once the game did get going, there was a remarkable atmosphere in the stadium, although the Cologne fans did ignite several flares and riot police needed to move in during the first-half.
Mertesacker added: ‘The fans who were in the stadium were quite enthusiastic, and it was quite fun to play in front of two crowds battling each other, in a way.
‘It felt good to be part of that, and especially when we were 1-0 down, to get back, for the fans to get back into the game with us scoring two, we finally found our rhythm, and the fans as well were happy.’
Mertesacker has revealed that he was advised to ensure his family stayed away