Mustafi says the Gunners showed their grit in the 1-0 win over Burnley to compliment their free-flowing football.
Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi
Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi has told the club’s official website their recent good form is down to a combination of ‘style and steel.’
The Gunners had to grind out a result at Burnley courtesy of a contentious last-minute winner from Laurent Koscielny, with The Clarets frustrating their opponents for long periods of the game and digging their heels in to prevent Arsenal from playing their normal possession game.
Up until the 92nd minute it worked for Sean Dyche’s men, but Arsenal’s relentless pressure eventually took its toll on the hosts and Arsene Wenger was able to celebrate 20 years at the helm in fine style by walking away from Turf Moor with all three points.
Although their football wasn’t as pretty as in their impressive victory over Chelsea, Mustafi believes his side’s capability to grind out wins is an impressive show of character as they made it five straight wins in a row in all competitions.
Burnley’s Sam Vokes in action with Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi
“It suits us more to play against big teams because it’s not always easy to come to places like [Turf Moor] and change from style to steel,” the German said.
“But we showed that have good character and steel, and that’s what gave us the three points in the end. I keep saying that it’s important that we fight until the end.
“A football game is 90 minutes and then extra time. The great teams fight until the end because they know that there’s still an opportunity to score a goal and today we showed that.
“You have to play until the referee blows the whistle.”
Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny celebrates scoring their first goal with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and team mates
Since his arrival from Valencia, Mustafi has settled into Arsenal’s backline incredibly smoothly and appears to be the perfect compliment to goalscorer Koscielny for their reliability and consistency.
Even though Burnley threatened The Gunners goal with several chances on Sunday afternoon, the 24-year-old was delighted at the determination of Wenger’s side to leave Lancashire with a win.
“It gives you confidence because this is not an easy place to come to. They know how to defend, defended until the end but we kept pushing until the end.
“It just showed us that we are capable of scoring from every situation, even in the last minutes. A win like this is important to us.”
Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny celebrates scoring their first goal with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (L)
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