Arsenal’s 9 Central Defenders Since Gabriel Paulista – Ranked

9. Shkodran Mustafi

The gift that keeps on giving….for everyone on planet earth who doesn’t support Arsenal.

Have you ever been more incensed by a player than Shkodran Mustafi? Have you ever been willing to part with your life savings and everything you own just to never have to watch someone kick a ball for your football club before? Have you ever seen such an endless stream of calamity from one individual? Have you ever seen anyone quite as inept at doing their job? Have you ever, ever, been at any point grateful that Mustafi was an Arsenal player?

Baffling as it may seem, yes. Well, I have anyway.

How anyone so utterly useless – who cost £35m – could actually at one point be the best central defender at the club is of no praise to the German, but instead an damning indictment of just how woeful defensive recruitment has been at the club over the past few years.

With him injured for the FA Cup final, there was genuine cause for concern. But that wasn’t because Mustafi was good, everyone else was just so dire. The (very) brief moments of joy he brought do not, at all, outweigh the festering cesspool of a legacy he’ll leave behind for himself.

Lovely guy, appalling footballer.