Mikel Arteta was pleased with the ‘courageous’ performance Shkodran Mustafi produced in Arsenal’s goalless draw with Burnley following his costly mistake against Chelsea.
Mustafi’s misplaced backpass directly led to David Luiz’s sending off at Stamford Bridge last month but Arteta has kept faith in the 27-year-old who has started the Gunners’ last two games versus Bournemouth and Burnley.
The German’s Arsenal career has been defined by a series of calamitous errors and he was heavily linked with a move away from the Emirates last summer.
However, Arteta is delighted with the way Mustafi has responded to his lastest blunder and felt the centre-back’s display at Turf Moor was one of the few positives for Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
‘Yeah, I said to him that he could make a mistake,’ the Spaniard said.
‘But I like his reaction afterwards and the courage he had to play and make decisions.
‘He’s been training really well and I think you could see today how good he was.’
Arteta bizarrely questioned the length of the grass in the wake of Arsenal’s stalemate at Turf Moor.
Asked whether he expected Burnley not to water the pitch, Arteta replied: ‘Absolutely. I didn’t water the pitch yesterday in the training ground.
‘I was expecting it but that doesn’t make it easier to play.
‘But it’s their game, they do really well what they do. It’s their strength, you are allowed to do it, you have to adapt.
‘We adapted well in some moments and in some others it wasn’t the grass it was the quality.
‘What they do they do really well and we could not cope with that in the right way.’
MORE: Ian Wright criticises Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s wayward finishing against Burnley
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