Unai Emery rarely says anything of note in his press conferences so it was quite surprising that he came to the defence of Shkodran Mustafi as forcefully as he did.
Speaking to the media ahead of Arsenal’s crucial game at Wolves on Wednesday night, Unai Emery said, “We need our supporters to help us.
“I know we are the actors, and the actor needs to be strong.
“When we win, they’re telling us we’re the best, we have a possibility to be third in the table.
“That is good, but when we aren’t putting in good performances, it’s the moment to have balance.
“Mustafi is a very good centre back. He has the habit — doing a tackle and going to ground.
“He can win one, two, three, four, but if he loses one he is the picture and if he concedes a goal he is the big picture.
“I have spoken to him, “You can improve and you need to work hard, you have a big quality for a centre back”.
“I protect him because I believe in him. He needs to improve tactically, decision making, but he has good quality and needs confidence.
“So I say to our supporters: “Help our players”. I know we need to be strong as players, as a coach, as a team, as a club.
“Personal insults I don’t agree with. Insults I don’t want.”
Mustafi came in for sustained criticism after his performance against Crystal Palace that saw him make a stupid mistake once again.
And that’s the problem, Mustafi isn’t being slated because he had one bad game or one bad moment, but rather because it has been a consistent pattern since his arrival in 2016 for £35m. If anything, his errors seem to be getting worse.
What I noticed most about these comments is how clear Emery is. So often when he speaks words come out of his mouth but you learn nothing of substance. Not so here. We also have to wonder if the criticism has got to Mustafi, which would be understandable. No matter what we think of him he is only human after all.
A note should be made about personal insults which have no place in the game. It’s one thing criticising a player for doing something daft on a football pitch, quite another to hurl personal abuse at him and I have no time for any of that – in any walk of life.
There have been strong reports all season that Emery is open to selling the German in order to free up funds for reinforcements in other areas.