Mustafi is truly enjoying himself at Arsenal. by Lagos Gooner
Hello! I hope I won’t sound like a groveler with what I am about to say here. I hope people will not come at me for wanting to extol Mustafi a bit? Against Everton on Sunday, while Arsenal strikers were doing their thing at the scoring end of the pitch, the Arsenal defenders, especially Mustafi, were doing what they know how to do best; defending our goal post.
Yes we conceded two goals; yes we were jittery sometimes but in all, we came out of the game with a victory because our defenders were making a difference at the back. David Luiz and Mustafi are starting to form a defensive partnership and it is starting to yield results. With Mustafi at the back, David Luiz has been venturing forward more often. He surely believes in his defensive partner’s ability to cover up well for him, which Mustafi has been doing so well in recent games. The once semi-reject at Arsenal, has now become the cornerstone…..
Did we notice that Mustafi has changed his hairstyle? Yes! Against Everton, our German hero spotted a dyed hair. Mustafi looked so funky in his new hairstyle. I could not help noticing how different and how free he felt on the pitch. Should I tell you what I read into Mustafi’s new look? His new look to me signifies peace of mind. It a man who is doing well, that will care about how he looks! He wants to express himself with his look. Being a student of communication, what the look communicated to me was happiness and peace of mind. Last season or two seasons ago, Mustafi wouldn’t have tried changing his hairstyle because his mind would have been preoccupied with footballing issues. He was under fire from different angles, and the last thing on his mind will be to change his look. Now, he seems to have the peace of mind everybody needs to do well, and he can now think of other aspects of his life.
Now that the team is playing well, the players will feel more relaxed, and when they feel more relaxed, they can express themselves better both on the field and off the field. What this means is that the player will be in the right frame of mind to play to win. A happy man is a well motivated man, my dad once told me. The players are happy, the stigmatized players are gradually feeling wanted and the team has started scoring goals! What more can an Arsenal fan ask for? I see the change in Mustafi as a testimony to how a player can change from bad to good, with the right training from the right coach. We are Arsenal and we are proud.
Sylvester Kwentua
Arteta has improved the team tremendously. If we can keep Aubemeyang and make the loan move of Ceballos permanent, we will compete with Liverpool and Man city for the title next season. Our defence is sorted. we just have to BUYThomas Partey in the summer. we have the squad and the manager to win titles. Mustafi has improved tremendously. Xhaka, Ozil, Pepe have all improved tremendously.
Comparing to the previous seasons and managers,mustafi has improved tremendously under MA.But there are many improvements still to be made.He performed well sunday specially aerially but there were moments i think he could have done better.He is improving match by match i hope he becomes a top defender very soon.
David luiz on the other hand was poor defensively on sunday specially his positioning was terrible.But when given time and space with the ball he can pull a pass that no defender does.He is very much comfortable with the ball but off the ball where he must show his strengths he has not impressed me yet.But he is well protected by MA’s structure and organization.He has improved massively as well but there is much more room to improve.
we hope they can continue their build up as we move for champions league spot.
Mustafi has certainly improved and with the arrival of William Silliba in the summer we now have more options. It is not only the central defenders who have improved but the entire organization of defence right from the strikers and back has improved under MA. The team has been given a new structure and that is the basic reason for our improved performances. Up the Gunners!
I agree with you. the way we defend as a team has improved. with 8 wins and two draws(against City and Liverpool), we will make top 4. We have to finish strongly.
Mustafi is looking more like the player we wanted when we signed him that is for sure, some of these players had played three games in a week and they were entitled to be tired towards the latter part of the game against Everton,they weathered the storm and rode their luck but if you take all this into consideration this was a good result and we have now made inroads towards a possible champions league place ,long may this upturn continue.
I wouldn’t read too much in a negative way in the Everton game and goals conceded,it was our 3rd game in a week,we were tired and Everton so soon after the winter break had a full week rest,do it was not surprised that we were slow to get started and they were quick and took the lead but despite all this each time we came back to win the game even if we suffered in the last 20 minutes once again due to fatigue but we showed character and Leno class,in those conditions there is more positive than negative to take from this game.
I don’t share the widespread Gooner belief that Mustafi is now transformed from a mistake on legs to a fine reliable and good CB. That is a silly idea, based on little more than a complete transformation in managerial and team communication that was so totally lacking under Emery.
Of course the defence is tighter and for several good reasons. We now have a team work ethic, a definite shape a motivator supreme as manager(compared to a motivational dunce in Emery) and a sense of worth throughout the team. Almost the entire reason is directly beause of Arteta who is managing to a standard beyond our wildest dreams.
But do not make the mistake that poor players become good players. That needs talent, sound judgement, sheer ability and such as Mustafi and Xhaka have NOT become good players. They have benefitted from the above talents of Artetas brilliance. They are still not good enough, not remotely so, to lead us into a new era in the seasons to follow this. THEY SHOULD BOTH BE SOLD. So should several others and I predict they all will be, when PROPER replacments are brought in.