Shkodran Mustafi has the backing of his Arsenal manager as he backed the German's "courage"
The central defender has come in for plenty of criticism over the past 18 months for a series of errors at the back.
His latest was a short back pass at Chelsea which saw the Gunners concede and go down to 10 men.
But Mikel Arteta has praised the way Mustafi has dealt with the mistake and wants him to continue playing with the right intent.
He said: "Yeah, I said to him that he could make a mistake 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."
Mustafi was part of an Arsenal back four that kept a clean sheet against Burnley at Turf Moor.
The 0-0 draw did little to help either side in what was a relatively quiet encounter, but Arteta was less than impressed with the state of the pitch.
However the Spaniard claimed that he was expecting the poor playing surface and prepared sufficiently before hand.
He added: "The conditions were difficult, the grass was 'this' long. They didn't put any water on it and that's not a very helpful thing to play football.
"I didn't water the pitch yesterday in the training ground so I was expecting it. That doesn't make it easier to play. It's their game, they do really well at what they do. It's their strength, you are allowed to do it so we have to adapt."
Arsenal's next game is away at Newcastle in a fortnight as they enjoy the benefits of the newly introduced winter break.
