Arsenal: James McNicholas believes Matteo Guendouzi’s Arsenal career is ‘done’

James McNicholas of The Athletic believes Matteo Guendouzi’s Arsenal career is ‘done’.

Matteo Guendouzi hasn’t appeared for the Gunners since the defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion last month in which the midfielder was involved in an incident with Neal Maupay. McNicholas’ colleague David Ornstein has reported that the 21-year-old has been instructed by his coach to train alone with a fitness coach with Mikel Arteta said to be experiencing some issues regarding the player’s attitude and conduct.

Guendouzi has started in 58% of Arsenal’s Premier League fixtures this season, making 24 appearances in total (via Transfermarkt.co.uk) but despite the active role he has played in their campaign so far, McNicholas believes his time at the Emirates may be about to come to an end.

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Speaking on a recent episode of the Arsecast Extra podcast, he said: “I think for all the talk of forgiveness and for all the talk of ‘oh, Arteta is all about clean slates and second chances’, I might be being premature, but I think this is done. I think he’s gone.

“The biggest problem for him is how little time there is before the transfer window to fix it.

“I think that he has done serious, serious damage to his standing with the manager and probably his standing with the fans, because we can all see what Arteta’s trying to do, the culture he’s trying to build. And for a guy, however talented he might be at 19/20 years of age, to not be prepared to do what it takes to be part of that, I think it’s really disappointing.”

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TIF Thoughts…

The former Lorient player has averaged a performance rating of 6.69/10 in the Premier League so far this season (via WhoScored.com) which is lower than that of Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos who were the starting midfield pairing in the Gunners’ recent victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.

Arsenal signed the player from Lorient in July 2018 in a deal reportedly worth £7.2m and according to Transfermarkt.co.uk, his value has significantly increased to £36.45m since. We believe the Gunners stand to make a profit on Matteo Guendouzi if they can find a suitor willing to purchase him for the right price; however, in our view, the negative press may lead to some clubs being put off the Frenchman.

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