Per Mertesacker believes that he and his Arsenal teammates let the fans down for their "shocking" first-half performance in Saturday's 3-2 defeat away to Stoke City.

Peter Crouch opened the scoring after just 20 seconds at the Britannia Stadium, while further goals from Bojan and Jon Walters stunned the Gunners and left them trailing 3-0 at the break.

Arsene Wenger's side threatened a comeback, with Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey reducing the arrears, but Calum Chambers's red card scuppered their comeback bid.

"We nearly came back from a shocking first half," he told the club's official website.

"We had to show some morale and some respect to our travelling fans. At half time we said to ourselves, 'we're going to fight until the end no matter what happens'.

"That was the only positive thing. We're not normally like that, so it's a big regret."

The North Londoners, who sit sixth in the Premier League table, face Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday, before resuming league duties by hosting Newcastle United on Saturday.