Arsenal’s defensive shortcomings are typified by the erratic Skhodran Mustafi

There was a passage of play in the 22nd minute of Arsenal’s season-opener against Manchester City which proved a sign of things to come.

Petr Cech passed a goal kick out left to Ainsley Maitland-Niles. The full-back passed to Matteo Guendouzi on the edge of Arsenal’s penalty area, where the midfielder was immediately under pressure by a City player and forced to send the ball back to Cech. Seemingly spotting a red shirt in the corner of his eye, Arsenal’s goalkeeper went to pass across his goal to the right, in the way that new manager Unai Emery had ordered them to play.

Except that the Arsenal shirt that caught Cech’s eye turned out to be a replica version worn by one of the fans behind his goal, and the ball only missed the far post by inches, narrowly avoiding one of the great own goals but conceding a needless corner nonetheless.

Area of weakness

Thirty-eight league games later, Arsenal finished fifth in the Premier League; outside the Champions League places and relying on Wednesday’s Europa League final against Chelsea to reach a pre-season target.

A glaring issue has been that while Arsenal outscored the teams in the two places above them – their 73 league goals being six more than fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur and 10 more than Chelsea – they conceded 11 more than both.

It has not been lost on studio pundits and stay-at-home bloggers, who have been quick to criticise an area of weakness that became known under Arsène Wenger but has not actually been addressed this season, despite money thrown at a problem personified by the erratic performances of defender Shkodran Mustafi.

‘If you make one mistake, they score’

“It is not getting to me,” Mustafi insisted when asked about the criticism. “Our job as defenders is to try not to concede goals, but if you make 90 per cent of your job and in the 10 per cent the opponent scores a goal, people forget about the 90 per cent.

“If, in the end of the season, you made 70 points, it is for a reason. I don’t think that if the back is not doing his job you would make 70 points. If you go into the game without the defence and only with attacking players, I am not sure you are going to make 70 points.

“If a striker misses a goal or a penalty or whatever, you get a new opportunity, five or 10 minutes later. For us defenders, if you make one mistake and they score, even if in five minutes you save something on the line, people still won’t talk about it. You get to live with it because it is part of our job.”

Chopping and changing

Mustafi and his defensive team-mates have not, however, been helped by the incessant chopping and changing by their manager. Arsenal played a back four on that opening day at the Emirates, Mustafi alongside Sokratis in central defence, Hector Bellerin right and Maitland-Niles, traditionally a right-flank player, left. Mustafi has also played as part of a back three and as a right-back in a four this season.

“I play right-back, left-back, centre midfield or striker – I don’t care. When the coach needs me I am going to be there, and when the team needs me I am going to be there. That is not just me, that is every player because we had a few players playing out of position.

“It is something that is very important and shows this team is fighting for each other. It is not only about me and doing well in my position, it is about what the team needs and what I can do for the team.”

Any win will do

It is right that questions are asked about a new goalkeeper (Bernd Leno), centre-back (Sokratis), and two defensive-minded midfielders (Lucas Torreira and Guendouzi) who arrived for £70million-plus but conceded exactly the same number of goals in the league in a side which scored one less than their predecessors last season.

Granted, they finished a place higher than last year, but that was perhaps more down to Manchester United’s decline than Arsenal’s improvement.

“We are a team who in a lot of games want to press up high and that gives teams opportunities to score goals against us,” Mustafi added. “It gives teams space to try to break on us. You have to go through all the details in all the games and see what was wrong. But even when we try to play out of the back, people say, ‘Why are they doing this? Why aren’t they just kicking it out from the back?” But that is not our game.

“The coach prefers that we make mistakes but still play our game, instead of just playing anything so he cannot identify us with the game we were supposed to be playing.

“At the end of the day you want to finish the game knowing you did this, this, this and that is why you won the game. Rather that saying, ‘How the hell did we win that, because we were bad.’”

In a Europa League final, Arsenal fans would argue that any kind of win against Chelsea would do, but a trophy would only paper over some major defensive problems.