Arsenal: Matteo Guendouzi mistakes worth the grinning and bearing

Arsenal had one major bright spot against Manchester City – Matteo Guendouzi. But he wasn’t perfect. That’s okay though, just bear with it.

Arsenal‘s loss to Manchester City was progress, believe it or not. The groundwork has officially begun. A new era is here, new players are being given their chance, and one of those players – Matteo Guendouzi – looks set to be a huge part of this new era from the get-go.

Guendouzi was an absolute joy to watch. His energy and enthusiasm for the entirety of the match was arguably the only thing to look forward to. He won the ball back eight times all on his own, he showed no fear in the face of the reigning champs and he clearly knows himself well enough to be a fantastic player.

But he wasn’t perfect. In fact, there were a couple times where I cringed at his positioning or decision making.

And then I remembered he’s 19-years-old and I needed to set aside my cringe and doubt and replace it with a grin and some faith. Because no matter what mistakes Guendouzi made, he made it perfectly clear that we all need to just grin and bear the mistakes – the lose touches, the heavy passes, etc.

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By that, I mean that no matter what he does, he needs to be starting until he proves otherwise. His energy on that pitch, as mentioned, was one of the only positives and when you start thinking about how that can be combined with Lucas Torreira, then suddenly we’re talking about an incredibly active and mobile midfield where once there was a massive lack of pace.

Guendouzi was not expected to make this big of an impact from the onset, but I think he made more of an impact than Xhaka and Ramsey combined, and those are two guys that are supposed to be getting into their prime years.

Perhaps it was down to his fearlessness and energy, perhaps it was down to the fact that City don’t have a beat on him. But for a young guy to make a handful of mistakes, some of which were really bad, and still finish the game as the top performer – well, that’s something pretty special.

Just seeing what Guendouzi can do made me wonder if maybe Unai Emery ought to make him the centerpiece of this midfield. The dude is special. That was Manchester City, and he didn’t care.