Shkodran Mustafi is believed to be facing the ire of his teammates for always blaming others when Arsenal concede goals.

Dressing room bust-up

Mustafi has been underfire from fans for his recent displays and it’s hard to imagine the German defender blaming others when he has been so culpable so often, but it seems that’s what’s happening.

After Sunday’s defeat at Brighton, there was, reportedly, a bust-up in the dressing room which saw a number of players come under attack.

That, in itself, is nothing to get excited or anxious about, in fact, dressing room bust-ups can be a positive for a side as teammates look to course correct and hold others responsible for their actions.

Mustafi, however, seems to be buying into Arsenal’s culture a little too much by shirking responsibility for his own poor performances this season.

“Defender Shkodran Mustafi has also been fingered because he always passes the blame on to other players when Arsenal concede goals,” The S*n report. “Mustafi is happy to blame everyone but himself for the shoddy goals Arsenal continue to concede.”

The German has made one mistake that led directly to a goal in the Premier League this season – the same number as Laurent Koscielny and Hector Bellerin. When you just look at Mustafi’s stats he does not seem to be the major problem at the back (that honour goes to Hector Bellerin).

But stats don’t tell you even half the story and Mustafi’s performances this season have been poor as you can see from the collection of player ratings reports we have compiled by clicking ‘next’:

v Brighton

2.5

Mustafi was caught out for the second goal, watching the ball instead of getting close to his man. After that, 2-0 down against a promoted side, he shouldn’t have needed to do much. Even so, his partnership with Koscielny looked as shaky as ever when Brighton did get forward.

In his defence, other than losing Murray for the goal, he was very good in the air. He won seven of his nine aerial duels, but he lost the one that counted.

v City (League)

1.5

I saw someone before the game saying Mustafi would either have a top performance or a disastrous one.

It was the latter.

His insistence on pushing right up on City players allowed them to find space behind him repeatedly.

His passing was the worst of any defender or midfielder.

There’s really nothing positive to say about him after that match.

v Ostersund (h)

6

Mustafi was generally decent, but there are a couple of things in his performances that are starting to become problematic.

Firstly, his insistence on diving in for everything could easily have led to a penalty for Östersund in the first half. Luckily, the referee let him off this time.

The other issue for him is the ill-advised risky passes. A few times in every game he’ll randomly fire the ball up-field, almost always resulting in nothing other than losing possession.

Then in his defensive third, he puts other players under pressure from time to time.

It was his pass, fired into Maitland-Niles when the midfielder was completely surrounded, that led to Arsenal losing the ball and giving away a penalty.

I really don’t want to see centre-backs taking as many risks as Mustafi does, it’s not worth it.

v Tottenham

3.5

Like Koscielny, let Kane get free for far too many headers.

He also played Alli onside for a one-on-one that could’ve killed the game.

He did have his moments, but was inconsistent at best.

v Everton

7

Mustafi was certainly up for the game and showed that with a number of crunching tackles and last-ditch blocks.

The German celebrated his goal-saving tackle on Theo Walcott as if he’d scored a goal. His flick-on for Koscielny’s goal was excellent.

The one blight was also picking up a needless yellow for a late tackle.

v Swansea

5

Won four of his six tackles and six aerial duels during the match.

He was certainly kept busy by Ayew and had a difficult time keeping him quiet.

Like Koscielny, he received no help from his midfield.

He may consider himself unfortunate that his late recovery tackle on Ayew set-up Clucas for Swansea’s third of the night.

v Chelsea

7

Along with Laurent Koscielny, Mustafi didn’t do enough for Chelsea’s opening goal.

After that, did well to keep the Blues to just the one goal, and earned the win.