Arsenal fans think they’ve found the next new world-beater after watching 19-year-old Mattéo Guendouzi play in the International Champions Cup game against Chelsea on Wednesday night.
The youngster signed from Lorient for £7million earlier in the summer and he’s already impressed this pre-season before the game last night.
The midfielder proved that was no fluke with another dominating performance against one of Arsenal’s direct Premier league rivals on Wednesday.
Chelsea had taken the lead in the 5th minute through Antonio Rudiger and Arsenal left it late when they got a deserved equaliser through Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal went on to claim the London bragging rights when they scored all their penalties to win 6-5 in a classy shootout display.
Lacazette is looking like he’s bang on form but it’s Guendouzi who really caught the eye of the fans with a display that hints at far, far more to come.
Here are the best reactions from excited Arsenal fans to their newly-signed talent:
https://twitter.com/Lacazettes/status/1024768101030748160
Guendouzi better than Pogba. Elneny only good at running. Mkhitariyan is a hit and miss. Özil was our biggest attacking threat. ESR is the brexit KDB confirmed. Lacazette deserves to start alongside Aubameyang
— ye (@asadshahhid) August 2, 2018
Guendouzi has to be my man of the match followed by Ozil as well !
— diane lancaster (@rosicky4) August 2, 2018
Guendouzi is such a talent. My god I hope he's just as involved alot this season.
— SG14? (@GoonerGoggz) August 1, 2018
Takeaways from the Arsenal v Chelsea highlights:
1. Xhaka needs to take his Albanian eagle celebration and fly the heck away from my club because Guendouzi can do his job a lot better
2. Centreback issues are gonna keep me up at night and stop the team making any real progress
— The Shoreditch Bandit (@tosin_GoodTimes) August 2, 2018
Guendouzi is unreal.
Mustafi has been our best defender during the pre season.
No Auba vs Laca comparison, both are WC strikers, when one has a bad game the other will show up, we are so lucky to have both of them.
Özil is our king, there's nothing he can't do. My Man.— Arjun (@MrArjunn) August 2, 2018
Guendouzi looks unreal, Sven is doing what Sven does #AFC #COYG
— Calum (@calum_davey) August 2, 2018
I legit was scared Iwobi would miss.. see Guendouzi play… my God.. that boy dey ball.. passes and tackles good.. he just needs to work on positioning in our own box when being attacked
— ?? (@ragnar_dr) August 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/sebastiangoone1/status/1024927872107073537
Massively impressed with how we stuck to our guns last night and played out and attacked, despite the chaos at the back.
Also, hard not to be excited with Matteo Guendouzi.— Positively Granit (Blackburn George) (@arseblagger) August 2, 2018
OPINION
Arsenal fans have a right to be excited. Guendouzi might not be first-choice this season but he will feature for Arsenal and he looks more than ready for the first-team. Rather than looking out of his depth against top-class opposition, he has more than held his own this summer and at £7million, Arsenal could have found themselves a real bargain. We can’t remember the last time that Arsenal fans had something to cheer about a relatively unknown signing. The Emery era has started well. Now the real business starts, next weekend.