Arsenal Vs Crystal Palace: This is why Shkodran Mustafi needs replacing

Shkodran Mustafi foolishly conceded a penalty in Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon. It is why he needs replacing.

Shkodran Mustafi is in his third season in north London. It has been a tumultuous ride, to say the least. But it’s easy to forget just what was expected of the German when he first arrived. He may not have been the household name, but he was not cheap.

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£35 million is the most that any Premier League club had ever paid for a centre-half bar Manchester City’s acquisition of John Stones earlier in the same summer. And Mustafi was Arsenal’s equal second-most expensive signing in the club’s history, bettered by only Mesut Ozil. The price made demands.

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It’s safe to say that Mustafi has not met those demands. That is not to say that he has been a bad player, a wasteful signing. But that he has nowhere near vindicated the world-class fee that Arsenal deemed him worthy, even if it was in somewhat desperate circumstances. And the problems that have underpinned Mustafi’s time in north London again came to the fore in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace.

Just before half-time, with the Gunners fortunate to be drawing, Mustafi decided to lunge inside the penalty area to try and clear a deflected corner. He cut down Cheikhou Kouyate and conceded a stonewall penalty. Palace duly converted and went into the break one goal to the good. And that is the epitome of Mustafi’s time at Arsenal.

In this match, if you were to ignore this moment of madness, Mustafi actually had a very good game indeed. Offered little control from his teammates when in possession, he marshalled the backline nicely, was rarely exposed in one-on-ones and topped the team in clearances, blocks and won three of his four attempted tackles.

But you can’t ignore that very moment of madness that, ultimately, cost the three points. And this is the crux of the Mustafi problem: he has everything that you would want in a centre-half, but he rarely produces like it. Such a conundrum begs the question: How long do you wait for him to put it all together before pulling the plug?

Now 26, it feels as though Mustafi is never going to learn. He is never going to iron out these momentary mistakes. He will not deliver on his natural skill set. And Unai Emery will not have the same patience as Arsene Wenger did.

The Palace game is a microcosm for Mustafi’s problems. It is why he needs replacing. And I think that Emery is beginning to agree.