Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has admitted that it was difficult for him to get back to his best form at the start of the season after Germany's triumph at the World Cup.
The 30-year-old was part of Joachim Low's side that lifted the trophy in Brazil last summer, but he and his teammates had difficulty adjusting back to life at club level.
Mertesacker has conceded that his form was below-par at the start of the campaign, while his international teammate Mesut Ozil sustained an injury which ruled him out for up to three months, which he feels played a major part in the Gunners' stuttering start to the season.
He told reporters: "We had a kind of post-World Cup trauma for half a year. The first months, in particular, were quite difficult to come back and to come down and to forget that, forget that feeling of being World Cup champion.
"That's what you need to have, you need to forget about that, to come down a bit, to calm down and to restart. That took nearly half a year to realise that. Most of the players got injured, I avoided that but didn't play at my best, but that was because I hadn't experienced this feeling before. I didn't know how to handle the situation. I tried to forget about that, about the World Cup.
"I knew maybe there would be some criticism to form, but I didn't get injured so I tried to prepare even more – doing more yoga, more treatment, more things like that to come to a certain level where I can compete again. From my experience, it took half a year."
Arsenal can win the FA Cup for the second year on the spin when they play Aston Villa on Saturday.
Simon Sinclair
