Arsenal's Per Mertesacker bemoans early kickoffs

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker believes that playing during lunchtime on Saturdays is adversely affecting his side.

The Gunners suffered a 6-0 defeat at Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.

Arsene Wenger's team also went down 6-3 at Manchester City in December and 5-1 to Liverpool at Anfield in February in early kickoffs.

"I don't know why, but it looks like we don't fancy early kickoffs away," The Mirror quotes the 29-year-old as saying. "It looks like we are going to have to apply to the FA to not play at 12.45pm away. That would help us a lot."

The German centre-back added of Arsenal's loss at Stamford Bridge: "We wanted to start very strong and show people we are good enough, but they (Chelsea) scored the two very early goals.

"We lost some balls when we tried to keep it desperately. They then caught us on the counter-attack. We tried to avoid that. But we missed it completely."

Arsenal are currently fourth in the league table with 62 points from 30 matches.