Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has revealed that as Shkodran Mustafi needs to cover for the first team the German center-back will not leave the club this month.
This season, Mustafi was restricted to just three Premier League appearances – a total of 43 minutes – so it was widely predicted that the 28-year-old would be shipped out in some form, with Barcelona tipped to press for the loan signing of Mustafi.
Arteta has no plans to further shrink his center-back squad as Arsenal has already loaned William Saliba to Nice and is anticipated to allow Sokratis Papastathopoulos to also leave the club in the coming weeks.
“His future right now is here,” Arteta said claim Sky Sports News. “I’m trying to help. We have Papa that probably is going to leave the club in this window, William that has already gone on loan, so we don’t have that many right now.”
“Gabriel’s been out now for a period, David [Luiz] has been injured, so the situation is completely different from before.”
