Shkodran Mustafi has earned surprise praise after winning over these Arsenal fans.
It seems some Arsenal fans are forgiving Shkodran Mustafi after his recent improvement in form.
See below as Mustafi posted on his Instagram page after our 2-2 draw away to Burnley on Sunday afternoon.
The German defender, who for so long has been something of a hate figure among Arsenal fans, is inundated with messages of support and praise after his showing at Turf Moor.
“MVP performance!” says one fan, while one says “Thanks for proving us wrong with your solid performance”.
This is quite a turnaround from Mustafi, who has done well to work his way into Mikel Arteta’s plans after many surely thought his career at the Emirates Stadium was over.
In truth, Arsenal probably still need to spend big on a new centre-back in the summer, but Mustafi is at least showing he can do a reliable job as a squad player for the rest of this season, and perhaps beyond.
2-2??? Wishful thinking!!
🤣
Mustafi produced several nice long balls to the left wing in Bournemouth, but he couldn’t do it again in Burnley
Probably because the levels of the two oppositions are different and because Saka had difficulties in getting past Burnley’s RB
This is why Kolasinac’s/ Tierney’s pace and skills are highly required to break defenses. We could also probably reassign Pepe as an LW, because he can’t shoot from the right wing
I think we should just forfeit the £20M deposit we already paid for Pepè and return him to Lille. It will be the most expensive loan deal ever, but in the longrun it will save the club another 5 year Ozil-type saga.
Lols!! 😅😅
I strongly agree with you
The record for most draws in a season is 17…. and we’re on 13…do you think we’ll break that?!!
Fair play to Mustafi…
😅Chill.I think MA will sort many things during the winter break.
COYG
😀👍
Mustafi had some solid matches in a row from that chelsea mistake he made.He is proving many fans wrong.And i hope he continues to do that.He may not be a top defender but he can be built into one.Just need to build on the confidence he has now.
Saw a clip of Mustafi giving his shirt to a boy in the crowd, turns out he had a 4am start travelling from Dublin to be there. Nice one, Shkodran 👍
Well done Mustafi, with the midfield in front of you even VVD would get a brain short circuit blown fuse every 10 minutes. The crux of our problems lie in our midfield,side/back passes, fouls near our penalty box, unable to feed the forwards or cover the full backs. Gone are the days when we controlled the games with Carzola/Fabregas/Rosicsky or even Nasri and Song. I had expectations of Mikel fixing the midfield as he was a midfield player too, unfortunately did not work. He sacrificed Auba (on the left), Gabriel (played him on the right) and Pepe to accommodate Lacazette and Ozil. It did not work and we lost 2 precious points.
I have been saying this for ages. Without a proper midfield it won’t matter which defenders we sign.
👍 👍
You must be referring 2-2 draw with Chelsea..
we went from a midfield of cazorla ramsey Jack Wilshere and coquelin to Guendouzi Willock, Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira the drop in quality is immense
I agree, mikey. This is one of the worst midfields in the EPL. Never mind Arsenal’s history! Attacking wise, we’re too slow with sideways and backward passing all too familiar. They make too many mistakes and fail to compete in physical tackles. Ultimately, our defense is under pressure and we “try” to play out from the back, which frankly is laughable! The ball goes to midfield and we either lose it or move sideways and eventually back again before Leno eventually long balls it to the opposition. Because we can’t even compete in the air to head the ball! When we had Viera and Petti, we had height, power, creativity and strength. Today, I don’t see any of that and I’m not surprised our strikers are struggling because the service is non existent!
Well said. There were times arsenal was playing good enough to make the top 4 with very average strikers but a very decent midfield. Now we have top class strikers but no midfield and everyone can see how bad we are. The midfield is the core of the team.
@mikey
First off, Aaron and Jack weren’t much help in defending, but due to the fact they liked to get too high up the pitch and usually walked back while we were being attacked. Santi and Le Coq controlled the midfield. The other 2 muppets were a disaster…
Giroud, Cazorla and Koscielny will be massive for this Arsenal side right now.
Yes midfield cannot be compared with past years but its no excuse for Ozil, Auba and Laca to be so poor. They can off days of course but even when you have an off day you still expect some class contributions. Going missing, giving the ball away, pointing, not concentrating, flat out miskicking the ball, shrugging shoulders, getting pissed at being taken off, etc are unacceptable.
Its such a shame that the defence and the midfield have tightened up and are much more committed (Xhaka, Mustafi) that our so-called big names give such shoddy performances not just this game but several in recent weeks.
That’s a result of discipline and perseverance…Well done Shkodran
👍
He had a very good game and was by far our best player, all credit to him for rising above the criticism that we have all given him in the past and also credit to Mikel for seeing that there is a good player in there somewhere.
Mustaffi is a problem, he will always be a problem because he is not good enough for us to progress but at least the guy is trying his hardest to put his best in. Xhaka is a problem, a massive problem because he isnt good enough and i dont like him at all but he is at least trying his hardest to play. We can all try and stick up for these players or we can tell the truth but they are not good enough for a top level Arsenal football team. Those who are sticking up for Ozil are not asking themselves, is he still good enough or trying enough and the truth is he isnt and not good enough for a top level Arsenal football team. The truth is we are stuck with these players until the end of the season. Can we achieve something with them when they aren’t good enough? Maybe but we cant acieve anything with with players who aren’t trying to or able to actually do what they are on the pitch for. Mustaffi and xhaka can be commended for their efforts but Ozil cannot but the truth is they are substandard to our success for the future.