New boy Shkodran Mustafi has urged his Arsenal teammates to not get carried away thinking about title challenges just yet, saying they need to remain focused in the short-term.
The Gunners recorded their sixth successive win at the weekend to put them into second position, level on points with leaders Man City, but the German international says they can’t get carried away and start dreaming of winning the league.
“I think there’s no point in thinking too far ahead,” he told Arsenal Player. “We just need to think day after day and game after game.
“We’re going to have a tough game on Wednesday as well, so we have to be prepared for that.
“Sometimes when you think too far in the future, you forget about the present and then you lose points. That’s what we don’t want to do.”
The 24 year old has yet to be on the losing side for his new club in the Premier League, winning all five of the games he’s played in, but he’s aware how challenging English football can be.
“It just shows you that the Premier League is really difficult,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re facing, you have to be at 100 per cent to get the three points out of the game.”
Love this guy…see him as a future captain of the club! Also how good has Iwobi been!
We have so many “future captains” at this club. Almost a third of our squad has been described as one over the last couple of years…
Arteta, BFG, Cazorla, Koscielny, Wilshere, Ramsey, Cech, Coquelin, Xhaka, Mustafi
Well to be honest Arteta, BFG, Koscielny and Cech have all been captains at Arsenal, so it will be the turn of Xhaka, Mustafi, Ramsey and hopefully Wilshere as the future….better to have a team of Captains than one individual anyway….
Yeah we had a couple of leaders in that invincibles team. We can’t have only 1 leader on the pitch and for the rest to cast a nervy eye on him.
He is right..just think of the number of times we have been top of the table at Xmas and we bottled it!
I don’t really get why people say that. It’s only happened twice in about 30 years. And we were only top by 2 points one time and 1 point the other.
True, although on a couple of other occasions we’ve been in the hunt until spring and then faltered.
We didn’t bottle it, we had about 10 injuries and 6 to key players with 6 crap squad players coming in to replace them while being in 4 competitions, flying to a wednesday champions league game somewhere far and playing 12:45 against a main rival on saturday. We have always been 2-3 big players off taking the league home for the past 10 years. My hope is Lucas comes in firing like a bat out of hell in the cup’s and forces his way in, Welbeck comes back fast and ready and gets us goals too! Giroud and Ramsey are… Read more »
We have a new pitch at the training ground and injuries will be reduced
I read that the pitch at the stadium was to be relaid in the summer gone by, and I hope that this surface is in place right now.
We will suffer fewer injuries this season and I hope we win the league
The comments of a great leader. What a great signing and addition to the team he is!
Per, Mustafi, Kos, Theo, Santi, and Xhaka are all leaders and experienced players on and off the pitch. This season is going to be great and I can see a different mentality with this team.
Wise words from an experienced player. I like everything about Mustafi.
If I ever get a staffordshire bull terrier then I will name it after this man.
Does this apply in the same way to other players, e.g. an Afghan Hound would be named after Koscielny?
I’ll name my next cairn terrier “Santi”. Happiest dogs in the world, those!
Hows about a greyhound called Hector?
Very pleased with how quickly he has settled in. It has made a big difference in having a settled back four.
I love this guy
Between him and Xhaka, we really have gained two great leadership personalities in the team.
That and a fighter in Perez who’s gotten to the top the hard way.
Up the Arsenal
A great signing and great statement! He reads the game so well and has slotted in nicely.
Can’t help it, but I think we’ve got a great chance of winning the league this season!
Ramsey and Giroud coming back just in time for our November madness where we usually lose a player or two!
COYG!
In the first sentence you say great statement, and in the second that you think we have a great chance of winning the league.
Please.
As the title heading states ‘MUSTAFI SOUNDS A SENSIBLE WARNING TO TEAMMATES’.
**TEAMMATES**
As **FANS** we can dream of winning the league.
It’s early days, but this lad is showing all the hallmarks of being a world class centre half, which we desperately needed. Need to keep him fit and keep him happy.
With the addition of a world class left back (Rodriguez?) we could be heading to the good old days, with a solid back 5 starting every counter attack.
He s right of course. Against Swansea concentration was lost a bit at 2-0 and we started letting them chances and a few free headers; that can’t happen against stronger opposition.
Come on on Wednesday!!
Theo was not amused when picked up by Mustafi and having his arse smacked after 2nd goal. HaHa
Having someone like Shkodran (I like the sound of his name) in the team to help keep everyone’s feet on the ground is refreshing. This outlook is indeed needed to win the league.
Everyone except theo?
He and Kos need to work on stopping opposition strikers having uncontested headers in the box.
Comment: he is our future leader
Obvious leader and a great addition you the squad. Supporters have to guard against the Ole chanting which leads to the team getting carried away, Hence the throwing away of 2-0 leads. Happens too often. Get the lead, consolidate, and catch others on our breaks.
Keep it going,kostafi
This guy has true leadership qualities. Loving him more and more. Still can’t over Mustafi giving Theo a fireman rescue lift last weekend!
I like the way he took accountability for the goal on the weekend. Could quite easily placed blame on Monreal for not cutting out the cross or others for not tracking back. But took the heat himself.
Ack I downthumbed by mistake. Couldn’t agree with you more. I hate it when players all look at each other with their arms spread, trying to deflect the blame. Anyone can make a mistake but great to see Mustafi keen to learn from it.
LOL another decent panic buy by Wenger.
Media take note.
The good thing is that we are only warming up.. look at the bench..! Much love..
it’s about time these arsenal players talked less. The ‘invincibles’ din’t think they could go unbeaten until possibly the last 4 matches. If they had come out at, say, the 30th game and say ‘we want to go unbeaten’, they would have bottled it. Did leicester players talk too much on the way to their way to the unprecedented triumph? they knew it would invite pressure. we have heard all too much of this over the last ten years. Let the players get in on the pitch and football do the talking
20 September 2002: Mr Wenger predicts Arsenal can go unbeaten all season (ridiculed by the press)
I think it’s a good idea
If they have not learnt the media hates them by now and don’t wish arsenal to win the league because of the club’s spending policy! Then they are all going to be gunned down by the press, one by one. The British press hates arsenal!!
Nonsense. The press and pundits are frustrated with The Arsenal, they get pissed when we lose (when we used to lose?) almost as much as the fans at the Emirates who seem to be neutral and not Arsenal supporters
We don’t know how good Iwobi really is yet, that kid is fantastic..Perez looks like he’s ready to score the goals in the cup games plus giroud and ramsey coming in by November sounds like a new signing…welbeck in January too … Let’s stay injury free, hope wallcot keeps scoring, Cech steps up, while ozil and alexis keep shining and we will finally end our epl wait in the season that had the toughest teams and beat managers. Arsenal fans and arsene wenger deserve this. Right now I’m not scared of any team going into games. Been a while I’ve… Read more »