Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Football London
Football London
Sport
Greg Johnson

'He'll cost us top four!' - Shkodran Mustafi hammered by Arsenal fans for Crystal Palace display

Christian Benteke had not scored a single Premier League goal in 358 days before he faced Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

Fortunately for the Belgian, he came up against a trio of defenders at the back for the Gunners who were so hapless as to let him stroll forward and finally stick the ball in the back of the net for the first time in over a year of topflight football.

Watching on in horror, fans were quick to point the blame at three culprits: Carl Jenkinson, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Shkodran Mustafi.

The right-back was at fault for playing Palace onside and Mavropanos gave away a cheap freekick. However, it was the World Cup-winning defender, signed from Valencia for £35million in 2016, that bore the brunt of the criticism.

Arsenal player ratings vs Crystal Palace: Iwobi almost saves the day as Mustafi ruins everything 

He had seemingly forgot to mark Benteke, the six-foot-three target man leading the line for the Eagles - not the sort of footballer that is easy to miss at the best of times.

Mesut Ozil managed to find an equaliser only for Mustafi to strike again in the second half. Wilfried Zaha was the player to benefit as he made the most of another howler of an error from the centre-back to make it 2-1.

Christian Benteke celebrates scoring against Arsenal as Shkodran Mustafi tries to claim for offside having failed to mark his man. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

James McArthur soon added a third. Mustafi was once again at fault.

To cap it all off, he was booked for diving with five minutes left on the clock. A spectacularly bad performance all round as Arsenal lost 3-2 at home.

It is not the first time that the German international has been pinpointed as a player who hampers rather than helps the Gunners, and head coach Unai Emery also came underfire for his selection to face Palace.

After Tottenham Hotspur's loss to Manchester City on Saturday, and a 4-0 win for Everton over Manchester United immediately before the game at the Emirates, Arsenal had an excellent chance to beat their south London opponents and move up to third.

Failing to do so was always going to be seen as a major missed opportunitiy.

Why Lucas Torreira was dropped to the bench by Unai Emery for Arsenal's Crystal Palace clash  

On social media, supporters raged over the slapdash defending that allowed Benteke to beat Bernd Leno before being given the slip by Zaha and failing to react for the McArthur goal.

Here is a selection of what fans said on Twitter about who was to blame.

Keep up to date with the latest news, features and exclusives from football.london via the free football.london app for iPhone and Android  

Available to download from the App Store and Google Play .

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.