Shkodran Mustafi believes Arsenal had “a tough game” against Huddersfield, despite running out 5-0 winners at full-time.

Arsenal went on to win the game comfortably but did struggle for long periods. Despite the early goal, much of the Gunners’ first-half performance was full of sloppy passing and needless errors that a better team could have taken advantage of.

Shkodran Mustafi is certainly not letting the scoreline distract him from the fact that Arsenal’s performance could have been better. “In the first half, and as well in the second half, a few passes were a bit sloppy,” he told Arsenal.com.

“That complicated the game because I think the plan of Huddersfield was to stay compact and win the balls and then counter-attack, which I think they did well.
“They were quite compact, but as soon as we tidied up our passing and the ball movement we found a way through and we played some good football.
“Overall we had to step it a little bit up because in the end yes it was 5-0, but the goals came late and they could have punished us in the first half, so it was a really tough game.”

Alexandre Lacazette gave Arsenal the lead after three minutes, which may have eased some of the nerves around the ground. Mustafi believed that a quick first goal was important and laid the foundation for the big win.

“When you have home games against teams like that, that don’t put too much pressure on you and let you have the ball, they stay compact and it’s difficult to come through so it was really important to score a first quick goal.
“We did and after that we could have done a lot better, so we complicated ourselves a little but, but at the end it’s about being professional, staying concentrated and we deserved to win the game.”

Two goals from Olivier Giroud, plus strikes from Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez helped Arsenal to a convincing, if flattering, 5-0 scoreline. It was Arsenal’s 12th successive league win at the Emirates Stadium.

Mustafi is happy that Arsenal have put such a good run together, but was keen to point out that it won’t mean much if we don’t reach our goal for the season.

“It’s fun to talk about numbers but in the end the numbers won’t help you if you don’t reach your goal in the end of the season, so it’s nice to read that, but in the end it doesn’t give you anything.
“You have to put the performance in every week and then in the end you count the numbers and see if you reached your goal or not.”

Mustafi continues his impressive run in the team, where he, when playing with Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal, has yet to concede a goal this season.