Arsenal defender Shkodran Mustafi has responded to fan criticism following his second display of the season against Nottingham Forest in midweek.
Mustafi played in central defence as the Gunners swept aside the Championship outfit 5-0 to progress to the Carabao Cup fourth round.
The German centre-back has been limited to minutes in cup competitions so far this season as he fights to regain a spot in Unai Emery’s first-choice starting XI.
His only other appearance came against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League as Arsenal won 3-0 away from home.
Mustafi has garnered a bad reputation among the Emirates faithful for his perceived error-prone tendencies.
One fan, however, was at pains to point out on Twitter following the Forest victory on Tuesday night: “I hate to say this but @MustafiOfficial has played 2 games and kept 2 clean sheet.”
Mustafi replied from his official account, tweeting: “Sorry for keeping the 2 clean sheets.”
The reply attracted a lot attention, gaining thousands of retweets and likes with a mixed bag of positive and negative comments from Arsenal fans.
Emery wanted to sell Mustafi in the summer transfer window but was unable to realise his wish.
The 27-year-old is now behind David Luiz, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Rob Holding in the pecking order, with Calum Chambers and Konstantinos Mavropanos also competition.
Following Mustafi’s refusal to leave Arsenal, Emery vowed to “work with” the player, whose contract expires in 2021.
“Mustafi decided to be here and when he decided to be here, he’s like any other player,” Emery said at the start of the season.
“Of course I respect his decision. When he decided I spoke to him and said: ‘You’re one more in the squad, I’m going to work with you as other players.’
“I don’t know exactly who was in his decision [to stay], but when he decided to stay here, it’s another player in the squad.”
