Arsenal: Shkodran Mustafi doubt opens up new hell

Shkodran Mustafi is a major doubt for next weekend’s FA Cup final. His potential absence opens a new hell for Arsenal with Gabriel Paulista and Laurent Koscielny already out.

Although the Premier League campaign drew to a disappointing end on Sunday, that does not mean that Arsenal’s season is over. In fact, the biggest game of the year is still to come and it offers them an unlikely chance of lifting a trophy after a turbulent and tumultuous year.

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The FA Cup is a competition that has been kind to the Gunners through Arsene Wenger’s reign. He has lifted it six times across his 21-year tenure, more than any other manager not named George Ramsay, who won the last of his six in 1920, including twice in the past three seasons; the 2014 title may well have rescued his job with intense pressure building after a near decade without a trophy.

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And Arsenal now have the chance to win their third FA Cup in the past four years. But to do so, they must overcome Premier League winners Chelsea. Antonio Conte’s side have been the best in the country by some distance this season, winning the league in relatively comfortable fashion bar a late, half-hearted challenge from Tottenham Hotspur.

It will be an almighty task to defeat the Blues, a task made harder by the spate of absentees that currently pervade the squad, especially at centre-half. During the 3-1 win over Everton, Laurent Koscielny saw red with a rash, unhinged, uncontrolled sliding tackle early in the first half. He will miss the FA Cup final as a result.

To then pile on the misery, Gabriel Paulista was stretchered off in the second half with what looked like a nasty injury that will almost certainly keep him out of the trip to Wembley. And to now add to the issues at centre-half, it is reported that Shkodran Mustafi is a major doubt for the final due to a concussion suffered in the midweek win over Sunderland.

Missing three starting centre-halves is a struggle that will have a huge impact on how Wenger sets his team up. If he wants to play three-at-the-back, as he has done recently, then he will be forced to shift Nacho Monreal inside and start Per Mertesacker alongside Rob Holding. That is not an especially formidable back three.

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Chelsea, for all their defensive success this season, also boast some frightening attacking options. They will rip Arsenal to shreds if that is the defence that Wenger is forced to play. It could mean that a back four is used, reverting back to a 4-2-3-1 system. Whatever the case, Wenger has some major decisions to make, and none of them are easy.