Mustafi the poster child of Arsenal stagnation

Daniel Storey

There is a surreal air to Arsenal’s final home games of this season, like walking out of your front door into a weird, hazy half-light. So obviously is this club, its players and the supporters going through the motions in the Premier League, each match passes by against a backdrop of almost total apathy. It turns what should be the high point of supporters’ weeks into quasi-philosophical quandaries: if Danny Welbeck scores a goal but nobody is there to see it, did it really go in?

Arsenal’s home form has actually been pretty solid. In the last 12 months they have lost only to the two Manchester clubs in the league, plus the freak second-leg result against Ostersund. They could feasibly end their season with eight straight home wins.

Yet it is a reflection of their dismal away results that all of this is virtually meaningless, a tour de force of dead-rubbery. Southampton may well have been battling for their lives, but Arsenal played with all the intensity of an Emirates Cup fixture and the stadium was roughly as full. Or perhaps that should be roughly as empty, given the overwhelming pessimism that abounds.

This is a difficult time to be an Arsenal fringe player, if we are allowed to show any sympathy for professional footballers. Results may be meaningless, but supporters and imperfect football writers are still perfectly prepared to make conclusions based on mistakes. That leaves the players with little to gain and everything to lose. If that sounds harsh, remember that this is a problem of their own making.

It’s also likely that the performance of some players in this footballing no man’s land will go some way to deciding their future at the club, perhaps even this summer. The arrival Sven Mislintat to oversee recruitment is likely to cause a higher turnover of playing staff than in recent seasons. Even if Arsene Wenger does stay on as manager, we will surely see no repeat of stagnancy dressed up as “cohesion”.

The team that faced Southampton is now the Arsenal ‘B’ team, save Petr Cech in goal, Hector Bellerin at right-back and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up front. Aubameyang, cup-tied in the Europa League, looked like a child in the playground invited to join in a game played by kids two years below. The difference in class between Arsenal’s haves and have-nots is monumental.

And so to one of the have-nots, or do-nothings. In this context, you might expect a World Cup-winning central defender who cost his club £35m and is just 25 to thrive as if to prove a point. Alongside Calum Chambers, two years but many games his junior, Shkodran Mustafi should be the leader of this defence and this team. Yet nobody epitomises the wastage quite like him.

There are thinking central defenders and action central defenders; the latter slide and sprint their way through matches. At the extreme end, an action defender gives off the impression that he is never more than ten minutes away from an error. David Luiz is another obvious example in the Premier League.

Mustafi is an action defender, one who plays very obviously on the edge. Precious little looks truly assured, whether he is playing well or badly. And he always gets noticed, for better or worse.

There’s nothing wrong with being an action defender, but success with that strategy does rely on concentration being maintained and decision-making being spot on. In both areas, Mustafi suffers, and has done throughout his time in England. At 25 there is still time for improvement, but Arsenal may well soon get fed up of waiting.

Luiz is an appropriate case to refer to here, because he was famously described by Gary Neville as a “10-year-old on a PlayStation” before his rapid improvement at Chelsea. Neville also managed Mustafi at Valencia, and told Lee Dixon at the time that he couldn’t believe the defender had commanded such a high fee when moving to Arsenal. The insinuation was pretty clear: ‘I don’t fancy him much’.

Southampton’s first goal was a showreel of Mustafi’s worst bits, the lack of anticipation for the cross compounded by the lack of awareness that Shane Long was running in behind him.

The German then tried to blame Cech for the error. More than one media report in the last month has suggested that Arsenal’s players are unhappy about Mustafi’s blame culture. When you’re hardly Mr Perfect yourself.

Southampton’s second goal also owed much to Mustafi’s dithering, allowing a cross to go past him without offering a leg and causing the penalty-box panic that eventually ended with Charlie Austin’s finish. If you can’t trust him against Austin and Long, what about Griezmann and Costa?

“He is at the right age,” Wenger told the club’s official website when Mustafi was signed. “He has good experience. He is a very focused player who can play with the ball as well. We have taken a great player but have prepared well for the future.”

As with so many at Arsenal near-past and present, there is a decent player lurking beneath the surface. As with so many at Arsenal near-past and present, it is hidden beneath a thick sludge of mediocrity that has been allowed to fester from the top down.

Mustafi’s confidence has been eroded away like the hope of every supporter absent from the Emirates on Sunday. The eighth most expensive defender in the game’s history is now the poster child of Arsenal stagnation.

Daniel Storey