Arteta shares what Arsenal’s £35m man said to him as he walked off the pitch

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Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi shouldn’t be out for too long, if he was just suffering with cramp.

Mikel Arteta has told Football London that Shkodran Mustafi said to him that he simply couldn’t play any more towards the end of their Europa League tie with Olympiacos.

Arsenal were knocked out of Europe in the last minute yesterday, in what was a heartbreaking defeat for the Gunners.

To make matters worse there were fears that Mustafi had picked up an injury, after he had to be taken off. 

And Arteta is hoping that the Arsenal centre-back was just suffering with cramp, rather than a serious problem.

And when asked for an update straight after the game, the Arsenal boss said: “I don’t know. He said to me ‘I cannot play anymore’, I don’t know if it’s a cramp or a muscle injury so I’m sure there will be a few of those because the players were exhausted, they played four times in seven days and it was physically a very demanding game.”

Mustafi has improved significantly under Arteta’s time in charge so far, and the £35 million (Guardian) German defender has established himself as part of Arsenal’s first choice centre-back pairing at the moment.

The Gunners had been in fairly strong defensive form leading into their game against Olympiacos, but they made some bad errors last night.

Arsenal went into the game with a 1-0 advantage from the first-leg, but were unable to hold on and the Greek side made them pay in the last minute.

Arteta’s side were clearly crestfallen at full-time, but they will need to bounce back quickly, as they are in action again on Monday against Portsmouth.