Arsenal: ‘Dirtiest Club’ has one largely unheralded hero

Arsenal are officially the dirtiest club in the Premier League and it feels amazing. But one hero of the story doesn’t get enough credit.

Arsenal have gone years being referred to as soft, flimsy, weak, ‘with a marshmallow core.’ All manner of derogatory sayings that can be used to express a team that isn’t gritty. As Troy Deeney so crassly put it, the Gunners “lacked cajones.”

Part of that was down to Arsene Wenger’s long-standing inability to load up on dirty players, particularly in the midfield. And when I say dirty, I don’t mean unnecessarily so. No Diego Costa’s need apply here. I just mean guys who aren’t afraid to foul when needed or get scrappy.

Now, in this exact moment, Arsenal are officially the dirtiest team in England. They have committed the most fouls in the roughest league in the world. And while some may see this as a negative, I think you’ll find that the overwhelming majority of fans love it.

And it’s a direct correlation to the players that we’ve been loading up on. Players like Lucas Torreira, Sokratis, Sead Kolasinac, hell, even Granit Xhaka, aren’t afraid to stick a foot in and send an opposing player sprawling.

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But amidst the new additions, and the solid core, there is one man that I don’t think gets enough credit for being a rough and tough dude, capable of fouling when needed (and sometimes when not, unfortunately) and standing up to anyone.

That man is Shkodran Mustafi.

With a cool 1.4 fouls a game, Mustafi sits second on the team in fouls committed behind Granit Xhaka. But that isn’t a gratuitous number. It’s not like he’s out there judo-chopping everyone in the throat just for a giggle.

He is just a strong, fearless (often to a fault) player who knows how to disrupt opposing attacks. While that doesn’t make up for his flaws – his inability to avoid bizarre mental errors, for instance – he has an ever-improving knack for being a nasty player that can seriously pester opposing strikers.

Just ask the plethora of strikers that currently reside in Mustafi’s pocket, foul or no foul.

The point of all of this is that, in the conversation of the new mean and nasty players at the club, Mustafi often gets overlooked for one reason or another. When in fact, I don’t think anyone is more important to this new club mantra than the German.