Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Shkodran Mustafi won’t fix everything
The big German was hailed as the solution to Arsenal’s defensive woes as he became Arsene Wenger’s first big money defensive signing in years, but in his first real test up against quality opposition, he was completely bamboozled by the movement of Edinson Cavani, letting go of his man to allow the Uruguayan to score within the first 46 seconds.
The fault wasn’t entirely on the 24-year-old’s shoulders though, as the entire Arsenal back-line looked shakey and unconvincing throughout the duel. Whilst in part this could be attributed to a lack of training as a unit, with Koscielny only having trained with the squad once since victory over Southampton due to an injury concern, it remains a major concern.
Wenger and his team were given a fortunate ‘get out of jail free card’, in that David Ospina produced a man of the match display in goal whilst Edinson Cavani had an evening to forget, but up against stronger teams and more clinical forwards in the latter rounds, they are unlikely to be afforded such luxuries and it is hard to see them fairing any better than previous year’s regular last 16 defeat if this performance was anything to go by.