Arsenal: Journalist provides insight into Matteo Guendouzi’s situation

Arsenal-oriented journalist Amy Lawrence has shed some light on the situation of Matteo Guendouzi at the Emirates.

Lawrence was recently a guest on the latest episode of the ‘Handbrake Off’ podcast, with the panel also including James McNicholas and Lee Dixon. The panel talked about many issues surrounding the club and this led to Lawrence giving some insight into Guendouzi’s situation at the London club.

Guendouzi hasn’t featured in Arsenal’s last three games in all competitions. The Frenchman didn’t feature against Southampton and Norwich. He also wasn’t involved in the club’s FA Cup win over Sheffield United (via Transfermarkt).

While talking about Guendouzi, Lawrence said that Mikel Arteta wants the midfielder to learn some lessons and if the club wants to sell him, they can earn some money from his sale too.

Lawrence said: “I think we can only regard Guendouzi at the moment in terms of what we imagined Arteta might want to do with him again. And I don’t know what that is. I don’t know whether he thinks he’s young enough that if we can get his head screwed on and teach him a few lessons, he can really fly after that and grow.

“Or, it might be that it’s a lesson not just to him, but to the whole squad as an entity. That if you’re not doing what’s expected of you, ‘I don’t care who you are’ – which is a good message, fundamentally, given the way the squad’s been over the recent years. And the thing about Guendouzi as well is that he does obviously have lots of potential and lots of qualities that are probably a bit challenging for any coach to try and harness.”

Lawrence went on to say that Guendouzi could be one of the players that gets moved on this summer.

She said: “Arsenal are supposedly in the market. And there’s been rumours and I’ve no idea whether they’re true or not, but I think he’s someone they can make some good money out of considering what they paid for him. So given that Arsenal are going to likely have to sell a bunch of players this summer in order to raise funds to bring in, hopefully, a different calibre of player or personality who can work in the way that Arteta really wants, so he can build his team – it may be that it’s not going happen. I think we’ll find out a little bit more over these next few weeks.”

So in many ways, these are tricky times for Guendouzi. He isn’t playing and, going by what Lawrence says, Arteta really wants him to learn some lessons before he starts playing in the first-team again.

TIF Thoughts…

Guendouzi has recently come under fire for taunting Brighton players about money. In the same game, the former Lorient man had grabbed Neal Maupay by the throat and had later escaped a ban from the FA. So there are some disciplinary issues with the player as well.

The midfielder has averaged a WhoScored rating of 6.69 in the Premier League this season. That is less than 14 other Arsenal players in the current campaign. It shows that his performances haven’t exactly been special.

So the 21-year-old isn’t having the best of times in multiple aspects. And it seems like he has to improve both of those things if he wants to play under Arteta.