Arsene Wenger, the esteemed Arsenal boss, was in desperate search to acquire a centre-back to partner Laurent Koscielny in recent years. German international Per Mertesacker was the top-most priority alongside the Frenchman for past five campaigns who despite being termed as ‘slow’, used to make up with his intelligence. However, he has suffered significant injury blows lately and the Brazilian Gabriel Paulista signed from Villareal last year, has failed to live up to the expectations in past couple of years.
So Wenger broke the bank once more and brought in Shkodran Mustafi from La Liga outfit Valencia for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in excess of £35 million. The 24 year old German international has been an inherent member of Joachim Low’s squad who won the FIFA World Cup 2014 and also featured in UEFA EURO 2016. Mustafi, once released by Everton, enjoyed successful spells with Sampdoria in Italy and later in La Liga with Los Che. His rise to fame allowed Wenger to gamble on him and the German centre-back has fared well so far in partnering the veteran Frenchman.
Usually, it takes time to settle down in Premier League atmosphere what is known to be the most competitive league in Europe. Moreover, playing for the Gunners adds an extra pressure of performing consistently in Champions League as well who in spite of being a European giant are yet to lift the silverware. But Mustafi has settled down quickly in his return to Premier League and strengthened the Gunners’ back-line with strong physicality, aerial ability and anticipation skills. His presence has eased off the pressure from Koscielny who had no option but to take added responsibility in defence earlier.
Arsenal are currently fourth in the league table with 28 points from 13 games and have conceded 13 times which does not reflect a decent-looking defensive record. Also, They have conceded five goals in their five Champions League group stage appearances which puts a further question mark on their defensive ability. In their latest European encounter against Paris St-Germain, the Gunners failed to hold on to a 2-1 lead as the game ended in a 2-2 draw at Emirates.
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Ex-Arsenal forward Charlie Nicholas slammed the defensive duo for their sluggishness and held them accountable for not being victorious over French champions:
“When it went to 2-1 with a fortunate own goal from Verratti, you thought they’d kick on a bit. You knew the counter attack and force that PSG had, they could get a second goal.
“Defensively I thought the centre-backs Koscielny and Mustafi were really lazy, I don’t know if they were worried about Cavani, but they were really slack at times.”
Statistics is an important thing, but not the only thing to judge one’s capability. The supporters will agree to it as they are mostly happy with the nesting partnership of “Kostafi” so far. It takes time to build on chemistry but the French-German duo has done reasonably well against tough Premier League opponents. Mustafi is enjoying a promising start to life and applauded his partner in a recent interview:
“We are quite similar in the style of playing, he understands things that I do, I understand things that he does. I’m happy to have someone next to me that my understanding is good with, but I think it’s not about me and Lolo, I think it’s about all of the team. “
