Arsenal's hopes of securing a return to the Champions League took a major hit on Sunday as they suffered a 3-2 loss at home to Crystal Palace.

Christian Benteke put the visitors ahead inside 17 minutes with his first goal in a year and, after Mesut Ozil equalised, Arsenal shipped two more goals.

Within eight minutes, goals from Wilfried Zaha and James McArthur gave Palace a 3-1 lead and they held on to all three points to confirm their Premier League place for next season.

After a run of three clean sheets in a row, Arsenal were less than impressive defensively at the Emirates Stadium and one of the main culprits was Shkodran Mustafi.

Unai Emery restored the German to his starting XI but his defending in the build up to Palace's second goal was simply bizarre and somewhat inexplicable.

Mustafi disappoints on return to starting XI

Mustafi didn't play in either of Arsenal's Europa League wins against Napoli, with the trio of Sokratis, captain Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal being preferred.

He did start Monday's 1-0 victory at Watford, but that was as a right-back, and he was back in Emery's central defensive three on Easter Sunday.

With the game in the balance at 1-1, 27-year-old Mustafi produced a truly critical error which resulted in Roy Hodgson's Palace regaining the lead.

As you can see further down the page, a free-kick was lofted up the pitch and Benteke's header led to a chase for the ball between Mustafi and Zaha.

To Mustafi's credit, he was initially in a good position, marshalling Zaha, and he read the direction of Benteke's flick-on, but his next move was quite remarkable.

Mustafi's defending for Zaha's goal

For reasons only the World Cup winner knows, he seemed to get out of Zaha's way and allowed the forward the chance to run through on goal and finish past Bernd Leno.

Replays of the goal suggest Mustafi could have been shielding the ball to Leno, even though the Arsenal goalkeeper clearly wasn't running out to try and get it.

Mustafi's outstretched arms and glare at Leno after Zaha scored makes it look like he felt his compatriot was partly to blame, but football fans are having none of it.

Arsenal now face tricky trips to Wolves and Leicester City in the top four race before the Europa League semi-final first leg with Mustafi's former club Valencia.

Do YOU blame Mustafi for Zaha being allowed to run on goal and score in Arsenal 2-3 Palace? Have YOUR say in the comments box below!