Marouane Chamakh has jumped to the defence of former Arsenal teammate Samir Nasri.

Nasri is currently playing for Sevilla on-loan from Manchester City.

Chamakh, who has just signed for Cardiff City, told RMC: "Everyone has been able to see, he always was the ugly duckling. Whenever there was a problem he'd be blamed and at some point I think he got fed up and that's normal.

"He wants to play, be happy, have fun. He received a lot of awful criticism, so it's really understandable that he retired from the national team earlier than expected. If he takes no pleasure for France and he does not see the positive side, it was right to draw a line under it all. This is normal, and I understand. If I were in his place I would have done the same thing."