Mertesacker emptiness: Per fails to impress as Gunners struggle against Greeks
gentle giant Per Mertesacker once went 31 games without being booked in Germany.
His unkindest critics would explain such a phenomenon by arguing that 6ft 6in Mertesacker never gets close enough to kick his opponents.
Arsenal 2-1 Olympiacos: Oxlade-Chamberlain scores on Euro debut but Gunners defence at fault again
But as Arsenal made desperately heavy weather of a Champions League assignment which looked more routine on paper than it was on grass, Mertesacker's uncomfortable night was another reminder that height alone is not the cure for their defensive frailty.
Anyone with 76 caps for Germany can't be a donkey, and all imports deserve the courtesy of adjustment to the culture shock of English football.
Yet the evidence is already piling up that Mertesacker will need to bring more than his sheer physical stature to the party if Arsenal are to leave behind their reputation as soft touches.
When David Fuster arrived unmarked in the box to head Olympiacos deservedly back into contention at 2-1, old Vorsprung durch Technik was nowhere to be seen.
And although his use of the ball at ground level was beyond reproach, the Greek champions' speed of thought and innovation in the final third exposed Mertesacker's limited mobility.
His experience and continental know-how will prop up a defence which has creaked this season like the front door of a haunted house, but when he is caught upfield Mertesacker has the turning circle of a cross-channel ferry leaving port or an articulated lorry performing a U-turn in a backstreet.
Give him time, and the right sidekick in central defence, and Mertesacker will turn out to be more Tony Adams than Igor Stepanovs.
But with apologies to Francis Ford Coppola, after the defensive apocalypse at Blackburn, this was Acropolis Now - and Arsenal only just survived the director's cut.
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