After Germany’s 2-0 win over Northern Ireland during their World Cup Qualifier, Shkodran Mustafi, who came on in the 69th minute, hailed their performance.

The centreback admitted that although they did well over the 90 minutes, sometimes the result doesn’t always go your way.

“Sometimes you have the feeling that you’re the better team but you play it forward and you’re just about to score a goal and you a counter-attack where [they] get a goal and you find yourself behind,” he said.

“Then it’s going to be even more difficult so I think we did well with our concentration.”

He went on to praise Germany’s stability at the back, which he contributed to.

Although Mustafi was talking about Germany in this instance, his comments are just as relevant when it comes to Arsenal. Numerous times we’ve been the better team, playing the ball out from the back and got hit on the counter.

Fortunately, I think we now have the – forgive me – mental strength and quality to overcome this although this wasn’t always the case.

Part of the reason for us now being so strong is the addition of Mustafi, who’s been a massive part of the starting XI since signing from Valencia in the summer.

Hopefully, this performance for his country will translate once he returns to north London to face Swansea at the weekend.