Shkodran Mustafi slams Arsenal fans for voting him second worst defender in world

The Gunners defender, who has yet to play a single second in the Premier League, hits back at criticism.

Shkodran Mustafi has very often been a target of social media bullying by upset Arsenal fans, but are they wrong?

Football fans have developed a habit of constantly ridiculing their own players on social media when they are going through a tough phase. The same happened with one Arsenal player, who was voted the second-worst in his position in a fan poll. He has now hit back.

Arsenal star Shkodran Mustafi has slammed fans were voting him the second-worst defender in the world.

Mustafi came second in the poll after one hundred and fifty-thousand votes were cast. The German international finished with thirty-five per cent of the total tally, with Phil Jones of Manchester United claiming the first position with nearly fifty per cent.

“I can also deal with harsh criticism,” Mustafi told Der Speigel. “But the criticism has escalated and become irrational. I have become a target. At some point, people even blamed me for a defeat in which I hadn’t played at all.”

Furthermore, the centre-back also singled out ex-Gunner Emmanuele Petit for his comments, after he had labelled the former a “king of blunders”.

“That annoyed me a lot. It’s one thing when fans or the media criticise you,” he said. “But it’s something completely different when an ex-player, who knows how hard it is sometimes on the field, says something like that.

“I expect those players to be more sensitive and to see what this sharp criticism can do. In the past, it might have been in the paper for a day and then people would have forgotten. Today it’s on the Internet and it’s going to haunt me for the rest of my career.”

Mustafi has fallen down the pecking order at Arsenal, with manager Unai Emery preferring to give the starting spot to new signing David Luiz and veteran Sokratis Papasthathapolous. Meanwhile, Rob Holding is expected to be put into the line up when he fully recovers from injury.

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