SHKODRAN MUSTAFI has been lamented for his errors at Arsenal but his latest stats reveal him to be not only the Gunners’ top defender but maybe one of the best the world over.
In three outings so far this season, the centre-back has kept three clean sheets with his team scoring 12 goals.
Good luck charm Mustafi was one of the chief scapegoats as Arsenal missed out on a top-four finish last term.
Individual errors led to a number of dropped points but he has evidently made great strides forward, winning his last five matches on a run that dates back to May.
The team’s record without him this year sits at three wins and three draws from seven games, replacement David Luiz haplessly conceding three goals to Liverpool in the defeat he sat out.
Thursday’s 4-0 thrashing of Standard Liege saw Mustafi lead a youthful side while gliding to a third straight shutout.
It followed similarly comfortable trouncings of Nottingham Forest and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Granted, such opposition may not always be up to Premier League standards but the 27-year-old has won the most aerial duels of his club in the Europa League, with five, and is yet to be dispossessed.
Latest Football news
The 100 per cent win ratio boasted by Mustafi so far is a vast improvement on his 61 per cent rate of 2018/19.
Unai Emery’s men did get on better when he was out the side that year, coming out victorious in 66 per cent of such games.
But this sudden upturn might tempt the Arsenal boss into playing Mustafi when Bournemouth come to Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
کوئی تبصرے نہیں:
ایک تبصرہ شائع کریں