Shkodran Mustafi says he’s not happy with the 0-0 draw against Chelsea, saying he wanted to take all three points at Stamford Bridge, but says there were encouraging signs from the Arsenal performance and has urged his teammates to keep up that level.
The Gunners could have won the game yesterday, but equally could have gone behind only for a great Petr Cech save from Pedro in the first half.
However, compared to the last game against a big side away from home, the improvement was obvious and great to see.
The German international spoke to Arsenal Player after the game, and was asked if he was happy with the point.
“Happy? No, because I would like to win games like today,” he said. “But I think in the end it’s a fair point. I think we had some great opportunities and they had a few at the end.
“One point at their ground, you can live for that and try to build from this team performance. I think the team performance was spot on.
“Everyone gave everything and I think it’s really important that we keep going like this.”
The performance hinted that lessons have been learned from Anfield, but Mustafi insists the team need to keep it going.
“We are a team that are willing to learn,” he continued. “I think that we have to try and build from something and I think we can build form this performance today because we were really well organised when we didn’t have the ball.
“When we had the ball, we played some brilliant one-touch football. I think we can build from this. We played today against the champions of last season and if you play like this, I think you’ll get a lot of points.
“We can build from that.”
Good lad, played well. Hope this match is a marker for the rest of the season.
I saw the ratings from Blogs and I thought he deserved more. He didn’t allow Morata out of the game. Yes I think he was given the slip once but for me did very well on the day. He was always there to mop up the danger several times. Him, Kos, and Monreal are turning into a really good back three.
Didn’t allow Morata a sniff**
Yep – and he actually stayed on his feet for the most part. That was the most encouraging thing for me.
What marker? Two points dropped?
We are The Arsenal with over 100 years more history than this plastic fc 2003 Russian play-thing. In no way should this sort of result be heralded as a success. Celebrating a draw.. remember when we laughed at sp-rs for that. How far we’ve fallen.
Absolute nonsense. In case it wasn’t clear :
*Marker – marker for the rest of the season given the capitulation at Anfield.
* Two points dropped – No. Playing the current champions away from home, it’s one point earned for any team.
* 100 years history is meaningless – That’s not how football games work. Its about current form, quality, and confidence. Given that we were low on form and confidence, this was a good result.
Some perspective will be helpful.
Thought he had a good performance. The duels with morata was fun to watch. A bit nerve wrecking at times, but felt he had good control throughout
WE talk about learning the lessons of Anfield but, when you look at that first goal and how the OX did not track back at all, it set the tone. It looked like he was totally not at the Game. I used to like the guy but that was immature and completely unprofessional. After that, no one was up for it. Little things, but Wenger probably regrets trusting him. And trust is a big thing for Wenger.
He probably was trying to get some points for his potential employers back then. That prick.
Now that he has left atleast we get to play both Bellerin and Kolasinac in their position. Bellerin is looking like he is slowly getting back to his best while Kolasinac is a different beast all together.
We got like 40 plus million to keep their bench nice and warm.
Good riddance overall in my opinion.
Abusing Ox without addressing Wenger’s role in his selection is a cop-out. It’s also pretty childish. Why is it okay to use abusive language anyway? You’re the same people complaining about all the unfair abuse that Wenger gets. Blatant hypocrisy is not okay. Ox was probably our best performer in the first two games of the season. Both Wenger and Ox are culpable for what happened at Anfield. Stop scapegoating players for a manager’s bad selection decisions. The level of revisionism about that game is hilarious. There were 10 other players on the field. And who did the manager sub… Read more »
Plenty of potential that never solidified and while Wenger, right or wrong, kept faith in him he rewarded that with demanding a move to Liverpool. He got the move and we got an over inflated price for him. Personally I would have been happy for him to stay, if that’s what he wanted, but he wanted out so good riddance to him. While his side continues to get battered we are showing signs of improvement. Happy days!
This is what I mean about revisionism. A year ago, when we first heard Ox was one of a number of players who hadn’t agreed a new deal, Ox didn’t have a fixed position in the team. He was a utility player, not a starter. He decided to try his luck elsewhere. Without his crucial assist for Nacho in the FA Cup semi, we might have ended last season trophy-less (and Wenger might have gone). So I wish Ox all the best, like I do Gabriel, Lucas and Kieran Gibbs. Or is it “good riddance” to them too? Somehow Ox… Read more »
Gabriel seemed an odd decision but Lucas and Gibbs were being wasted with no game time while Ox got plenty in spite of his patchy form. He still didn’t want to be here and since we can cope perfectly well without him then yes, it’s good riddance from me. I don’t wish him harm but I don’t particularly wish him well either. He’s a Liverpool player now and I can’t muster enough care to, err, care about that team and its players.
Sure, that’s reasonable and I mostly agree, but tbh I wasn’t debating how we evaluate former players or whether it was the right decision to move certain players on.
We have a problem with scapegoating and abusing individual players at this club instead of looking at issues at a whole is my point in a nutshell.
I think picking on certain players is very much an English thing. This country loves knocking people down.
I agree that the issues at Arsenal go beyond the performance of some players. One that could be immediately remedied is Wenger’s frustrating habit of playing them out of position.
Not to argue but that ties into Ox as he actually did alright in a different position but insisted on going back to his old one. So there he is at Liverpool in his favoured slots as they are getting spanked by the likes of Leicester.
I really rate ox. I still fondly remember the first season he burst on scene bar that manu game. But it’s really not a coincidence so many of our heavy defeat has him in the team.
*Build from this!* I hope this keeps ringing in our player’s head. That was an emphatic performance. I am not going to whinge about the draw or whatever that happened in the past. I see this as step forward from where we were a couple of weeks back at Anfield. I hope our players don’t get back to their own internal zones and instead keep working hard. If a player like Ramsey could do it against the champions on their home turf..why can’t he just do it on a regular basis? You really don’t have to be a Lionel Messi… Read more »
Frankly speaking it’s hard to be optimistic. How many times have we thought the team finally learnt how to play big games. Remember Liverpool 2-1 after the thrashing we got? Remember all the games with man city? I will reserve my judgment till end of November.
Andries Jonker and Ljunberg fired from Wolfsburg
That was quick! What happened?
The board decided they weren’t delivering. From the 4 games this season, they managed 1 point. From his 19 matches, they lost 7, taking 28 pts from a possible 57. That’s about 50% of total possible points.
But there’s a lot of backroom reasons too.
I completely agree with him, I’ve seen a lot or fans thrilled with the result against Chelsea which is representative of the low standards supporters seem to have these days. I’m just so sick of not even having the expectation that we’ll challenge for the title, how can you not win it for over a decade and not maybe go a little overboard with signings? Why always so efficient? Sign a proven winger, a rock or a CB, a dynamic CM, why take the risk playing Iwobi and Holding, SICK OF ITTT!!
I know right??? The standard should be the invincibles at the minimum. How hard is it to stay undefeated for a season. Give it 200% dedication at all times is all it takes. Its not hard to do.
People like you are the problem, only giving 200%! I’m always reading blogs and watching matches at a minimum 500%.
That was just the minimum. I personally give 1000%
We need a bigger English core!!
Where is your sense of humour? Caligunner was being sarcastic
Hope this time the lessons learnt is for the long-term.
Good team work and we hope for the best, if gunners can keep this fighting spirit going, trust me we will really be on the top and know team will like to deal with us. Let wait and see the next game.COYG
Mustafi is much better as the Anchor of the three man defense. Looks much more settled and assured as compared to him being on the right of the Central defense. The less sliding tackles he makes, the better for every one.
Why per is not playing is really beyond me. Per flanked by kos and mustafi is one hell of a defense…..I get the royalty thingee with monreal. But frankly speaking, per is an upgrade over monreal in cb any time any day.
You probably had one too many beers when you were watching the match. You could make a case for Per replacing Mustafi in the lineup sometimes, but you suggesting that Monreal should be the one to make way is just comical.
I disagree. The mobility Monreal brings to the back is a big help just like Chelsea and azpilusquirter. Monreal is also very experienced and not as old and about to retire.
Monreal has been one of the most consistent (and by consistent I mean consistently good)performers of this team. I would’t drop him even if he was a hot brick
“….Per is an upgrade over monreal in cb any time any day” You’re absolutely right.
True, because he’s the slowest of the three.
Which is a subtle change but an important one as he has kosc and monreal on either side with pace to follow balls over the top into either channel.
We never built on the City win did we… so I won’t be surprised if this is a one off.. this happened because anfield was still fresh, and, let’s admit, there was no drogba or Costa to to deal with.. bring on the downvotes.
He was really out most of the time for Morata (perhaps because he knows him most from their LA Liga days). I specialy enjoyed the Mustafi/Morata duels. To me,Mustafi won overall.
They never played in La Liga against each other.
Nice attitude.
Finally a player who isn’t over the moon that we drew when we should have won, especially because we deserved to win. I’ll like to hear the forwards rue some of the chances we missed. Really happy with how we played but I aspire to be happier with arsenal, as happy as winning the treble, next year and at least the premier league this year. So I need us, especially our players to reject the satisfaction of putting Chelsea to an away goaless draw sword. Tell them #Lehman! COYG!!!
No one deserves to win lol Yeah because no one ever misses shorts on goal.
We should play Mustafi and Nacho against strikers like Morata, Aguero, Sane, Vardy and so on. But, for me BFG and Holding should start when we face strikers like Kane and Lukaku.
that doesn’t even make any sense at all lol
absolutely.
It was an excellent performance by Mustafi. 8 clearances which is the highest in the game. Arguably he was MOTM alongside Rambo. But for a couple of incidents, he had Morata in his pocket. The Spaniard got increasingly frustrated over the course of the match. Begs the question why we were contemplating even selling him. When you consider Koscielny’s first season with us (littered with reds, Own Goals and penalties conceded), Mustafi did very well coming straight in for his debut season. Chiefly though, the defense is more solid with the right players backing each other up (Koscielny and Monreal… Read more »