Arsenal: At this point, I’d rather Shkodran Mustafi than Luiz or Sokratis

Arsenal’s defensive dunces gave away another match, and for the life of me, I can’t recall Shkodran Mustafi being this bad this often.

Arsenal did it again. They took a two goal lead, handed it to their defense, and their defense promptly soiled themselves and dropped the lead into an incinerator. Same as they normally do.

No matter how a match is going, there is always that knowledge that it’s about to go wrong. Against Burnley, a one goal lead was squandered on a poor mistake by David Luiz. Against Liverpool, Sokratis and Luiz combined to put in a laughable defensive display and against Tottenham, they were bad again, this time with Granit Xhaka there to make it worse.

But Watford was the cream of the crop. At no other juncture will you see a better example of what these two defenders are capable of from the negative side of things. They teamed up to give this game away, Sokratis giving the ball away for an easy goal and Luiz surrendering an atrocious penalty.

Honestly, was Shkodran Mustafi this bad? I mean that with all sincerity, for now, and without an facetiousness. Was he really this bad?

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I remember Mustafi having some good matches mixed in with those matches every once a month or so when he would crap his pants, but I don’t recall Mustafi ever being so bad in four straight matches. I mean, Sokratis and Luiz are awful. Not just in defense, but in ball handling, in composure, in just about every category that you need a defender to be good in. They just suck, all around.

In individuality, maybe they can function. For instance, Sokratis and Koscielny were pretty effective and Luiz had some great years next to the likes of Gary Cahill, but put these two together and it’s like all of their worst qualities come out to play.

All in all, we haven’t had a good defensive match since… Newcastle. And that’s the last time these two buffoons were apart.

Mustafi is still on the team. He’s still waiting. This sounds crazy, but he can’t be any worse than these two. He really can’t. If Chambers isn’t going to play and Rob Holding isn’t ready, I’d rather see Shkodran Mustafi.

Maybe it isn’t the personnel, but the tactics? I don’t know. I’m trying to make sense of how so many professional defenders can pass through this back line and no one is able to make it look any better than it was before.