Per Mertesacker urges Arsenal to "switch on"

Per Mertesacker has called on his Arsenal teammates to be "switched on" for tomorrow's visit of Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Arsene Wenger's men host the Reds at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday eight days after being demolished 5-1 by their Merseyside counterparts, who took a 4-0 lead inside 20 minutes.

The Gunners face a potentially season-defining couple of fixtures, with the visit of Brendan Rodgers's troops followed by a clash with Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

He wrote in Arsenal's matchday programme: "The concentration, the tension and the atmosphere will be bigger than normal, but I am still relaxed because we have had heavy schedules through the season.

"If there are four big games coming up, you have to isolate each game and take one at a time.

"You have to switch on quickly and try to switch off for maybe 24 hours and then [get] switched on again, that is really important during heavy schedule."

Tomorrow's clash in North London is scheduled to kick off at 4pm.