After an hour of yesterday’s game against Crystal Palace, the match was finely balanced at 1-1 but then Benteke put a probing pass towards goal. Mustafi easily got to the ball ahead of Wilfred Zaha, but suddenly stopped and tried to block the striker instead of following the ball. Zaha easily glided around him and had a free shot on goal which he easily converted, and suddenly Arsenal were in big trouble and only had 30 minutes to turn the game around.
But when asked about Mustafi’s performance after the game, Emery refused to criticize the error-prone German. “We can speak about players individually, but sometimes they can play very well, sometimes cannot play well,” the boss said. “But I prefer to speak about the consistency in the season. I think we are, every player, helping and every player is playing with a big performance and today also, when you can defend against a player like Benteke or Zaha, you can suffer more than maybe in other situations.
“But if today we were better in the set pieces, maybe we could have won this match and also, we controlled the possession but in the attacking third they defended their goal and their box very well and we didn’t find the best situation to score and to take more chances to score.”
As he mentioned consistency, Emery was then asked if Mustafi had been consistent this season, and he replied: “In all the season I think he is being consistent. We speak about every match.”
Actually I think he is right! Mustafi has consistently made mistakes this season, in fact he was the same last season, and the season before too. I have lost count of the amount of points the German has cost us since his arrival.
Although Emery refuses to blame Mustafi in public, surely he must be privately planning to get rid of him in the summer?
Darren N
my question is, who is going to pay for mustafi? those rumours of him going to italy have died down and rightly so but even if he was willing to go to china could we even recoup half of his transfer fee? easily wengers worst piece of business
where are the fans that praise kostafi were the best combination…..at their height the partnership conceded the least…..
some players play really good for a small period of time followed by an average career. remember smalling “smaldini” he did hit a top level form during that time. Asensio was suppose to be his next superstar at real madrid last season now he cant even get in the team. kostafi at their best were a league challenging cb duo before mustafi form fall of a cliff.
Mustafi,Lichsteiner,Jenko,Welbez,Ramsey,Elneny,Ospina,Chambers….clear out
Cech-retirement
Mavropanos,Smith-Rowe,Wilock-Loan deals
Promote -Nketia,Nielson
Buy a defender,typical winger,Attacking midfielder and one versatile player who can play across the backline then we are good to go next season
Em….you forgot one important thing. MONEY.
It’s amazing to think that Mustafi is one of the most expensive CB’s in world football. He has been a huge flop! I still cannot believe his defending for that second goal. I am still in shock! It’s something you wouldn’t expect your under 10’s to do, let alone a WC winner! Mustafi’s harshest critics probably couldn’t even envisage he could actually play THAT bad!
Emery still has to take the bulk of the blame for his lineup though. You cannot start Mustafi, Mavropanos, Jenkinson, Elneny, Guendouzi, at the same time, and NOT expect repercussions. I understand the need for rotation, but that was too many changes, and such a lack of quality coming in. In other leagues you could probably get away with it, but not in the EPL. It’s the toughest league in the world for a reason.
The ONLY thing that can save this result is if Chelsea lose at home against Burnley. A long shot, but here’s hoping!
Well said thirdman and that’s a really really long shot but we have to believe ? once I saw that lineup, I knew we wouldn’t win it’s just a shame Emery didn’t see it!
Stats could be defying. A World Cup winner and the excellent stats do no mean a player can thrive in EPL
I urge Arsenal to examine their next targets thoroughly before purchasing and they should not rely on the players’ stats/ past achievements
We’ve all played 34 games and we are still ahead of Chelsea by goals.. it’s still ours to lose. We stay positive.. may be this defeated will push them on to win at wolves
“it’s still ours to lose”…….. yeah and we probably will.
We’ve got as much chance of finishing in the top four as selling Mustafi.
I really hope so ? if not then Emery is not the man for Arsenal! Any half decent manager would not have error prone Mustafi anywhere near their squad! The fella is absolutely hopeless. I’d throw Zech Medley in there can’t be worse than Mustafi! Still really annoyed we lost yesterday, it just feels like we’ve blown our chances of top 4 ? of course, time will only tell but with our away form and Emery’s chopping and changing I’m not too convinced! These guys know what’s on the line but they just don’t get it.. they’re just mentally weak! We need a big Summer Jenkinson, Mustafi, Elneny, Mkh, Ospina, Lichsteiner and Iwobi all need to go.
Mustafi unnecessary conceded the corner which led to the third goal too….Should have controlled the ball well rather than conceding the corner…
We can’t blame him alone. Mavropanos’s foul on Benteke gave Palace a free kick and resulted in Palace’s first goal
Had Arsenal’s attack not been so dull, they would have scored first and the match result could be different if Arsenal put Palace to the sword quickly. Unfortunately the two forwards could not threaten the opposition on the flanks and the no 10 was barren of creativity
For stats lovers, Mustafi is a World Cup winner (albeit a benchwarmer at that competition), he is still in his prime age and his defending stats are one of the highest in EPL, therefore his value should be at least 20+ M. He disappointed us, but I’m more disappointed of Arsenal’s inability to use the wide forwards, unlike Liverpool (Salah/ Mane), Man City (Sterling/ Sane) and Barcelona (Messi/ Coutinho)
Emery still has made a big mistake from the start and she should be blame for his lineup though. You cannot start Mustafi, Mavropanos, Jenkinson, Elneny, Guendouzi, at the same time, and NOT expect repercussions. I understand the need for rotation, but that was too many changes, and such a lack of quality coming in. In other leagues you could probably get away with it, but not in the EPL. It’s the toughest league in the world for a reason.
There’s rotation but starting El Neny, Guendouzi and Jenkinson was always gonna be trouble from the start and it proved to be the case
Blame? BLAME?!
nobody to blame when we lose but ourselves for supporting a bunch of losers who didn’t know what’s at stake here!
Yes it’s human to make mistakes but I expected them to be eradicated after DEFEAT NUMBER ONE. This is not a team capable of anything if it can’t learn.
You don’t play 7 defensive minded players in a home game you want to win against a decent team for that matter. That was a stupid gamble from Emery and I hope we don’t pay the price in our fight for top 4. No wonder he couldn’t get up from his seat throughout the first 45 mins because he knew he had messed the opportunity to go third. He tried to make amends in the second half but of course we still have calamity Mustaphi already.
I love Emery. He has 100% been an improvement over Wenger BUT yesterday was completely Emery’s fault
Emery should not have started Muatafi, Jenkinson, Mavrapanos and Elneny all in one line-up. It was a disaster waiting to happen
Mustafi needs to be sold. Also Jenkinson, Elneny, and maybe Xhaka too
Who should he have started instead?
Can AMN, Monreal, Xhaka and Torreira play every game without injuries and with consistency?
Both Xhaka and Torreira had minor injuries.
We are playing games every third day or something surely rotation is necessary?
Lichsteiner is hardly better than Jenkinson, U-23 players are hardly better than Mavropanos, and Elneny and Guendouzi where the only fit midfielders. Mkhitaryian was available but is hardly a good choice as a defensive midfielder?
We won trophies back in the day with a 17 player squad, on pitches that were either frozen solid or ankle deep in mud, when players like Norman Hunter and Ron Harris aimed for the player and not the ball and weren’t paid a kings ransom. Today’s players are overpaid, over protected pansies.
Declan, you are right, but it’s a fact that mental and physical toughness are missing in many ways of life, including professional footballers.
You are so correct. The term “snowflake” did not come out of nowhere; it aptly describes the vast majority of young people and young adults everywhere in the first world economy today. Including police, teachers, footballers and much else beside. We are paying the predicted price for decades of not teaching and insisting on earning your keep, starting as a very young child. THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENTS OF ALL SHADES HAVE ALSO AIDED AND ABETTED THIS WEAKENING OF THE CHARACTER OF YOUNGER SOCIETY. So many people now view “success” -that phony God- in material and monetary terms only. How wrong they are! We oldies were spared this widespead character weakening, thankfully.
One of your best posts Jon and 100% right
Emery under estimated ‘palace and payed the price . i mean that guy isn’t worth anything from my standpoint . that second goal he should have just past the ball to leno who would have cleared. you wouldn’t see that defending even from championship teams!!!
The sooner we get rid of our crappy players, the better for us, and Mustafi tops that list…… someway, somehow he keeps managing to make shocking errors, each one worse than the last….. I believe Mavropanos would be way better than him already if he had been frequently included in the line up since his return from injury…… I think Leno has been our most reliable player for a while now, and since Cech is retiring, we’re going to have to sign a competent keeper that will challenge him for the number one jersey, so that his performance won’t drop…… once again… it’s really important to rid ourselves of our consistent screw ups….. if only it was possible to ban Mustafi from wearing an arsenal jersey ever again…….. Chelsea still has man u to play, so there’s still a little bit of hope that we’ll finish top 4, but above Tottenham, the odds are not looking good…… Bonjour gooners everywhere
If we don’t finish in the Top 4. I will point to this match in particular
We had the chance of going to 3rd place. It was a Home match. No excuses
Emery f***ed up (excuse my language) the line-up and we bottled it.
I still support Emery but he blew a huge opportunity
???
guendouzi, elneny were not attacking instead moved the ball to the back. Mustafi Was The culprit for all the 3 goals we conceded. Who should use the back door, Mustafi, elneny, jenkson, Marco.on the line up, u can’t start guendouzi and elneny together, they are paper weight.
Mustafi is one of the main reasons why Wenger was sacked.
He can has always been calamitous even when having a good game.
I also don’t think we would have ever gone out of the champs league were it not for him
When exactly was the last time Benteke scored? 10 years ago? Why do we have this incredible habit of either someone scoring their first goal against us or someone ending their goal drought against us?? And when was the last time we lost at home to Palace???
As for Mustafi… what a donkey… he had better not be playing on Wednesday (or ever again in actual fact!) And I hope Sokratis has a right go at him (seeing as UE didn’t)
I know it’s football & ? happens, someone pointed out that Everton beat us, Chelsea & United & lost to Fulham… still bloody disappointing though ?
Exactly Sue! Benteke won’t score again until palace play Arsenal again ? as for Mustafi I never wanna hear his name or see him ever again! I’ve already had a nightmare about him last night ?
I bet you woke in a cold sweat ?
its the same fans that wanted to the manager to sign benteke few years back
Jeez! Well I wasn’t one of them!! Now I’d take Zaha all day long!
Would Zaha come after all the abuse he’s been getting from us? Surely the backwards and sideways passing couldn’t have impressed him either. Just remembering El Neny’s and Mustafi’s passing makes me sick to my stomatch. Am afraid we are carrying too many substandard players in our squad.
Nah probably not QD… plus he wants champions league football & that’s hanging by a thread at the minute….. shame though, he’s got everything we need
10 years ago ??
We always seem to be the team that players that haven’t scored in ages score against
Andy Carroll springs to mind
Peter crouch
Oh there’s a pattern ,shit lanky players but always score against us
Peter Crouch scored his ONLY hat trick against us…. says it all doesn’t it?! ?
Totally agree
It’s Deja’s vu all over again … Same excuses as under wenger … The truth is we are a typical 21st century corporation first and a football club second … What matters is short term returns to ownership and the value of underlying asset …that’s reasonably healthy so no need to bring in a manager with big footballing ideas or to invest in performance on the pitch … The club is reaping what it sowed
Rkw, you are right Arsenal is no longer an aspirational football club. Pep Guardiola couldn’t win this this squad and under investment by Kroenke and the board. Who would replace Emery and do better?
maybe we fail to give hodgson the props he deserves his team has to have been committed to stifle our home form which was impeccable up until yesterday. In my opinion we undermined the c.palace threat by fielding jenk elneny mavro, inexperienced squad players for a test we needed to win. Fortunately we’ve still a chance to make amends although the question is what would we hope to achieve in europe’s prestigous competitions when we struggle to distinguish our team from the london sides where we live – we have to brush the likes of cpalace aside if we plan to impose our game against the high-ranked sides at home and abroad.
Arsenal fans didn’t deserve what was served up yesterday.
I hate Mustafi
Roy Hodgson, Zaha & the Palace fans don’t
Funny you say that because my mate from South London’s username on Justcrystalpalace website is I love Mustafi
?? if we didn’t laugh we’d cry!!!
Saw on my mates news feed that he posted this
If you’re ever feeling you’re life’s shit always remember mustafi is a professional footballer so there always hope .
Hahaha that’s brilliant….. I think he gives hope to all potential players that have been told they won’t make it!
Am sorry but for me only 2% of it is Mustafi’s fault. 98% goes to Emery for that garbage line up. We saw the result of playing Guendouzi – El Neny rubbish patnership but on top of that Emery still picked them and added even more deadwood around them to seal our fate! That L is absolutely Emery’s fault. Thank goodness I waited for the line up before putting any money on the game!
All the players in that “garbage lineup” are being paid handsomely as professional footballers to perform on the field representing Arsenal. Some should be embarrassed to collect their wages for this match, as they obviously didn’t appreciate the importance of winning.
For the life of me I really can’t understand Mustafi he is like a backdoor left open. He can make great plays do good things on the pitch but bam! He makes a calamitous error that results in a goal. How confident would a goalkeeper be to have him as the last defender?
He ought to have been sold last season. He is a ticking time bomb and an expensive one at that in fact I would prefer to promote one of the U23s to the first than risk having Mustafi messing us up at any opportunity.
He is the worst defender that I’ve ever seen. We can’t afford to keep him.
ARSENAL FC is a work on PROGRESS under UE. The team[Arsenal] is to much for average players, They need to part ways with the club to allow space for world class players. We can understand some of these players were liability to there former clubs.
The whole myth about our team not being good enough is a load of bullsht.
Wenger never had issues with attacking, he had issues with defending…
Arsenal bought 5 players who are all def orientated and Emery hasn’t made our team much better defensively, the main improvement is pressing as a team along with communication for offside trap. Emery tactics though are amateurish.
With the signings we got, we have a squad capable of getting 3rd, I have said this all season long and if UE wasn’t messing up games like CP and Everton then we would be firmly in third, closer to the top two then people give credit!
I am getting sick to death of so called Arsenal supporters saying we are a mid table team, STFU, we are not!
Yes we lost to CP, Emery picked the wrong squad, that is why we lost.
A back 3 against a lone Benteke… then 2DMs for what? To cover Zaha? 5 players to cover their 2 main attacking threats. Want to know why we are not third? 5 players to mark 2. That is why!
It’s all to make Emery the genius whilst our players made to look like clowns in unbalanced a lineup.
For three seasons I have been slagged off by a section of Arsenal fans for having the temerity to criticise Mustafi on a regular basis.After his latest debacle, he was culpable for all three goals, I trust his fans will now concede defeat.The guy is one of the poorest defenders to have pulled on our shirt.With the likes of him, Lichsteiner,and Jenkinsen to choose from,Emery has done really well to get us where we are.For someone to suggest that Emery has to shoulder 98% of the blame for our defeat suggests to me a delusion of the highest level .Mustafi is useless.
Grandad-I am surprised you feel you have been criticised by your Mustafi comments but if you have then where are they all now? No excuses.He is a liability and it’s shameful the player is still at the Club let alone anywhere near the first team
I wanted Mustafi to improve under Emery… I had hope he would, we all knew Wenger wasn’t the best at teaching players to defend and I was hoping it was that which made him worse over time.
He did join us and our def picked up for nearly a dozen games before injuries hit us and we went back to ‘normal’.
His contract runs out in 2021 (transfermarkt) so 2 years left, from what Raul has said, if he isn’t offered a contract then we will be looking for a buyer for him. Raul doesn’t want players going into final 12 months.
Maybe a bit of hope… ?
…..” we all knew Wenger wasn’t the best at teaching defenders to defend”! If that is not the understatement of all time, I don’t know what is! I would put it thus: WENGER NEITHER KNEW NOR CARED ABOUT DEFENCE AND PROPER DEFENDERS. That is far more the real truth!
Being one of a minority of true realists on here, I never forget two things. First that defenders who are totally useless should be nowhere near an Arsenal squad, let alone the actual team. Second, that the people who foisted Mustafi and all the other so called outfield “defenders”- save only Lichtsteiner- on the admirable Emery was Wenger, aided and abetted in his long term “crimes” against Arsenal defence by GAZIDIS THE TERRIBLE. Sokratis was daft enough to keep wrestling until he was finally banned through numerous bookings and so was not available. He is only a little better than Mustafi anyway. Thanks to Kroenkes meanness the new regime had only “peanuts” to spend last summer. Who else COULD Emery pick at CB therefore? It is NOT his fault that Mustafi is a sick joke and I can guarantee the club will be shifting Heaven and Earth to remove this joke player Mustafi from our club this summer. He should NEVER have been bought in the first place. Another £ 35 mill down the drain! Thanks for nothing, past regime. I also note with satisfaction that the man who could “supposedly walk into almost any managers job in football” is still unemployed as a manager, a full year after his far too late sacking! I am not a bit surprised ! Big clubs insist on managers who up to date!
I am a little worried about Mavropanos as he seems to have a bit of the “Mustafi brain seizure episodes” in him. Being a young player and just returning from injury, I hope he can improve on the promise he showed last year and get this bad performance out of his system. While Mustafi was not blameless for the first goal I think Jenkinson has to take the biggest part of the blame. He was behind all the other defenders when the ball was crossed so he actually played Benteke onside. Part of being a true fan is being able to support the team especially when things don’t go right but gosh its really hard to find positives about Mustafi. The lad just seems to have these periods when his brain goes completely dead!!! The Aguero goal against City, the foul against Harry Kane for the penalty, this one with Zaha and countless others. I think we might just have to cut our losses and offload him at a loss IF we can find a team interested in buying him.