During Arsenal’s FA Cup fourth-round win against Bournemouth, Shkodran Mustafi had to be taken off the pitch on a stretcher just after the hour mark.
Sky Sports claim that the North London club feared that the defender suffered a bad injury and may have ended up damaging his ligaments.
However, the club has been handed some good news with Mustafi said to have escaped any serious damage. Scans have revealed that the injury was only an ankle sprain, meaning he will only be out for weeks and not months.
Arsenal have enough injury problems with Calum Chambers out for a long period of time and it would have further hampered the club’s push for a Champions League spot if the same had happened to Mustafi.
The German had a pretty impressive game until that point as he was handling the Bournemouth attack well and was excellent with his passing.
With Rob Holding making his way back into the team after a long period out with injury, it is important for Arteta to have all hands on deck. This performance from Mustafi would have been encouraging to see after his mistake against Chelsea.
The 27-year-old’s bad pass allowed Tammy Abraham to race through on goal and that eventually led to David Luiz being sent off and Chelsea being awarded a penalty.
If Arsenal are to make a strong finish to the season, they have to focus on being defensively solid. It doesn’t matter how many goals they score but if they keep conceding, it will be hard to catch up with their rivals.
Players like Mustafi need to step up and show that they can be counted upon. With the club announcing the loan signing of Spanish center-back Pablo Mari, it will let Arteta breathe a little easy. And when Mustafi does come back, he will offer the manager more options that will only benefit the club.
Though he has shown his class in bits and pieces, Mustafi has been too error-prone to be trusted. Perhaps this will be the beginning of a new dawn for the German as he can show what made the Gunners splash the cash on him in the first place.
