Shkodran Mustafi has appeared in Sky Sports’ power rankings team of the season so far, despite mixed performances for Arsenal in the campaign so far.

Sky Sports evaluate player performances every week using 33 different stats, including goals, passes, tackles, blocks, aerial duels, and so on. Each player is then given a rating based on how they performed.

As mentioned, this is done on a weekly basis, but Sky also tally up the running totals for the season so far. They’ve put together a team of the season for the 2018/19 campaign based on the three months of football we’ve seen at this stage, and Shkodran Mustafi made the cut in defence.

The Daily Star write that this is because Mustafi has “dominated the stats for tackles, aerial challenges, blocks, interceptions, clearances and duels”, and it’s hard to argue with that. Mustafi regularly does well in these kinds of stat totals, and an added bonus of Arsenal’s possession-based style is that his passing stats always look good too.

The problem with the German defender has always been his concentration and positioning. He’ll happily charge out of formation to intercept a pass, which looks great in the stats, but those attempted interceptions leave openings for the opposition to exploit if he fails to win the ball.

Add in the rash challenges he’ll fly into, giving away penalties or similar, and you can see why he doesn’t have a fantastic reputation with Arsenal fans despite what the stats say.

Nonetheless, Mustafi has certainly stepped up well in some matches this season, like the Liverpool home game. If he can play like that more consistently, he’ll earn his spot in teams like these.