Arsenal: Per Mertesacker wants Arsenal to defend with discipline in the next six games

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker insists that the Gunners have to get back their discipline at the back if they have to keep up the pressure on the challengers at the top. The north London club are all but out of the title race, currently 13 points behind league leaders Leicester City and six behind Tottenham Hotspur with a game in hand.

The north London club have conceded 12 goals in their last five games, including three against West Ham at Upton Park last weekend, where they were 2-0 up minutes before half-time. Failure to mark crosses into the box saw Andy Carroll score a hattrick to put the Hammers ahead in the second half and only a late equaliser by Laurent Koscielny allowed the north London club to salvage a point.

Mertesacker was dropped for the game to make way for Gabriel, who was directly culpable for at least two of the three goals conceded. The Brazil international failed to clear Carroll's header inside the penalty box for the second goal and a wicked deflection saw David Ospina beaten in the near post.

For the third goal, Gabriel's failed attempt at a clearance put the ball into the net and allowed the Hammers an advantage. However, Mertesacker believes that the time for blame games are over and that the team should come together and defend as a unit in their next six games and give themselves a chance to pull off something special.

"[We need] discipline," Mertesacker told Arsenal's official website. "We lacked a bit of that desperation, even when 2-0 up at West Ham, to defend and get everyone behind the ball. To come back to that level is absolutely important in the Premier League, and if you don't you will get punished. These details are very important to us and everyone can see it, it is obvious.

"We want to win every single match now, to put the teams in front of us under pressure. We have got the belief we can win every single one and that is the task from now on: to concentrate on the next one. When something is going against us in a game, we have to focus on ourselves and not get distracted by anything else. The focus and the mind-set are really important.

"There are fast changes, even in a single game and also throughout the stretch of the season. We have to be ready and concentrate on ourselves and our games - anything can happen in football. We need to be there, when there is space and teams are dropping points. But that is not our business; we are just talking about ourselves and trying to win every single game."