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After Martin Skrtel was allowed to head in a stoppage-time equaliser from a corner on Sunday, the Gunners boss admits his back line has struggled this season

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits that his back line has suffered from a lack of leadership and stability this season.

The Gunners lost out on a victory at Anfield on Sunday when, after Liverpool dominated for much of the game, Reds defender Martin Skrtel headed home an equaliser from a corner in stoppage time.

Centre-back Per Mertesacker was pictured ducking away from the ball as the Slovakian scored but Wenger feels that the blame for conceding at set-pieces lies with the team as a whole rather than the German.

“Mertesacker gives his best and, on the corner, it is more organisational and a collective problem because nobody really talks,” he told reporters. “They should. Maybe they do talk but it doesn’t look like that when you look at the pictures.

“Of course it’s important to have someone organising. Sometimes it’s just one yard forward or backward that makes a difference. You want somebody to take the leadership there.

“[Mertesacker] had a difficult start to the season but he’s been much sharper. Many people had a go at him for the corner but I looked at it and he had no chance to get that ball in the zone where he was.

“I don’t know [why he ducked]. Maybe because he sees he hasn’t got the ball and somebody jumps over him and it’s a reflex but I don’t think he could have got the ball.

“It’s not easy for him. When [Laurent] Koscielny will come back and [Mathieu] Debuchy being back, we will be more stable. We had no stability at the back.

“It’s difficult for players at the World Cup. You don’t see them before November, really. It is difficult to get the hunger to go to Stoke and win or Sunderland, having won the World Cup.”

Calum Chambers has been a regular member of the Arsenal defence since signing from Southampton in the summer but natural right-back Debuchy was preferred on Sunday and Wenger admits the youngster has been overworked.

“He has played too many games,” the Frenchman explained. “They all hit the wall after 15, 16, 17 games. You have to give them a breather, refresh and get them back again. To have that responsibility in every single game is a lot on a player of that age.”

“I put Debuchy in first of all because he is good in the air. At Stoke, we suffered in the air. He is a defender of experience. The defensive responsibility [for Chambers] is a bit less on the flank.”