Arsenal Vs Sporting: Matteo Guendouzi the glittering star

Arsenal travel to Sporting CP on Thursday night for their third Europa League group match. The glittering star that I cannot wait to see is Matteo Guendouzi.

The Europa League continues on Thursday night. I must confess: I don’t really like the Europa League. It is on a Thursday. It features predominantly uninspiring matches. It is a competition that is important for as much as it offers passage to next season’s Champions League as it is a European trophy. It just isn’t particularly exciting.

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And I feel that many Arsenal fans hold this same perspective, especially the group stage matches. They are games that are semi-meaningless — Arsenal will qualify for the knockout stages barring a catastrophe — and they are against opponents that are not particularly invigorating or interesting.

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However, having said all of this, if there is one thing that does make me genuinely look forward to these matches, the next of which is a trip to Sporting CP on Thursday night in which the Gunners can all but wrap up qualification with a win, it is watching the younger players who would not usually get to feature in the Premier League play a prominent role against senior opposition. And there is none that I am more excited to watch than Matteo Guendouzi.

The 19-year-old Frenchman arrived in north London in the summer. I had never heard of him. I am not sure many others had either. But he came. He saw. And he didn’t come too far from conquering. Guendouzi was mightily impressive in the preseason, immediately surpassing Mohamed Elneny in the midfield pecking order, starting the first five Premier League matches of the season.

Guendouzi has since had to play second fiddle to Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka, but the initial impression made by his inexorable talent has not diminished. In fact, even in the glimpses that we have seen since from off the bench, Guendouzi still looks like a wonderfully gifted midfielder. And I just want to see more and more of him.

It seems as though the Europa League is going to be Guendouzi’s tournament. He played the full 90 minutes against Qarabag last time out, even notching his first goal for the club, and looked extremely comfortable conducting the midfield with his wonderful passing range, exquisitely positioned distribution, and astounding confidence, calmness and poise for a player of his age and inexperience.

I just love watching him play. Even in the 30 minutes or so that he played against Leicester on Monday night, he was again very, very impressive. He orchestrated from deep, trusted by Unai Emery to dictate play from the heart of the midfield with the game still in the balance — he made 35 passes, just one fewer than Alexandre Lacazette and two more Henrikh Mkhitaryan. And I look forward to watching him play again on Thursday.

The Europa League is far from my favourite competition. But there are reasons to watch it; there are glittering stars that demand attention. And few are shining brighter than Matteo Guendouzi.