Per Mertesacker says his goalscoring record at Wembley is “magic”.
The World Cup winner headed home Santi Cazorla’s corner as Arsenal cruised to a record 12th FA Cup by beating Aston Villa 4-0 on Saturday.
It was almost a carbon copy of his goal in last season’s semi-final win against Wigan Athletic, and Mertesacker believes he has a special bond with the stadium.
“Wembley must be magic for me,” he told Arsenal Player. “I scored against England as well as in a semi-final last season, and the final this year.
“It’s always good to score and that was a decisive moment in the game to put us 3-0 up. It was a great feeling and we are a great unit. You could see how we played together. Collectively, we were absolutely great today.”
Mertesacker was encouraged by Arsenal’s team performance and believes that the Gunners’ togetherness will be key for next season’s Premier League title race.
“That’s what we try to build and we need to improve that even more as well,” the German said.
“The big topic for every team is to be together and show that not only off the pitch, but on the pitch as well, no matter what happens.
“We have great resilience, even when we dropped points or lost, we came back stronger. Hopefully we can continue that but we won’t take it for granted. We’ll celebrate as much as we can for as long as we can, and celebrate with our fans.”
