Journalist Daniel Storey has slammed Matteo Guendouzi following Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion recently.
Storey was present on the latest episode of ‘The Totally Football Show’ podcast and a discussion took place about the Gunners and their ability to respond under pressure. At that point, Storey chose to focus on Guendouzi and had some criticism for the midfielder.
The former Lorient man had featured for the Gunners against the Seagulls. As per the Daily Mail, he had ‘tastelessly taunted’ Brighton players over money and was also involved in an altercation with Neal Maupay.
Did Guendozi deserve a ban from the FA?
No, he doesn't deserve it
Yes, he should be banned
While talking about Guendouzi’s temperament, Storey said: “That is a little bit of a theme with Guendouzi; he had some sort of [previous] spat with Mikel Arteta. And the accusation was that he kind of talks a good game but doesn’t necessarily walk the walk on the pitch, and we kind of saw the same again.
“I saw Arsenal fans were incredibly frustrated that their team seemed to show more passion after the final whistle than they had in the 20 minutes previous to the final whistle, and that was why they lost the game.”
Storey linked this to Arsenal’s own issues, as he talked about how they aren’t good at responding to pressure.
He said: “They have this ability or this tendency to kind of clam up and respond poorly to any kind of pressure. And Brighton are not a side in form, and they’re not a side who really have ground out results in the last 5-10 minutes of games and Arsenal should have been, even having conceded the equaliser, on the front foot, and clearly they weren’t. It does feel like two fairly significant steps back for Arteta.”
Storey isn’t too impressed with Guendouzi. The Frenchman recently escaped an FA ban despite him having grabbed Maupay’s throat in the game at the weekend.
TIF Thoughts…
Guendouzi’s recent actions are certain to cause a lot of controversy in the media and amongst the fans.
He has made 24 Premier League appearances for the Gunners this season, with 19 of them being starts. However, the midfielder has only picked up a WhoScored rating of 6.69/10, which has been the 11th-best in the Arsenal team this season.
It isn’t too bad a rating, but there is room for improvement as well. The manner in which he has reportedly taunted Brighton players doesn’t look good on his name. And to make detractors focus on his good things, he would need to put in better performances to attract plaudits. So the £36.45m-rated Frenchman should rather start to ‘walk the walk’ on the pitch.