Arsenal vs Huddersfield: Matteo Guendouzi – fluke or future?

Arsenal’s match-up against Huddersfield town produced some interesting stats, but Matteo Guendouzi notched the most interesting. Was it just a fluke, or something more?

Arsenal didn’t make it look pretty against Huddersfield. You wouldn’t have guessed it by the starting XI. The creativity was pushed to the wingbacks to feed the front two, with three deep-lying midfielders providing a little push from behind.

It didn’t work. Having no creative midfielders left a bit of a void, even if the inclusion of attacking midfielders hasn’t really made much of a difference in recent matches anyway. So essentially, there was a major gap to be filled in the chance creation department, because not even Sead Kolasinac was up to the challenge this time.

There’s where Matteo Guendouzi came into the match. While he was guilty of a Son-like flop (although he wasn’t rewarded for it), Guendouzi made a massive impact in a way that we don’t traditionally associate with him – creating chances.

Matteo Guendouzi led the team with five created chances. He didn’t just lead the team. If you added up any three other Arsenal players, the highest you could get is five created chances.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Meaning that Guendouzi ran the show. And it was his passing that led to the one breakthrough goal. He picked out Aubameyang from the most improbable of positions, making it look far easier than it really was, and that didn’t even count as a chance created.

Not just that, but he completed 94% of his passes in general, which also led the team by some distance. Guendouzi was a passing master. And while I still think Granit Xhaka had a bigger impact on the game in general, Guendouzi was a stalwart in this one.

That’s my question – is this a hint at the future or a fluke? You know, through the first two games in the season, Guendouzi led the entire Premier League in winning the ball. He doesn’t do that anymore but, at the time, we figured it was the future he had.

Guendouzi averages half a chance created per appearance. That’s 0.5. He had 10x that in one match. Therefore, it’s a lot easier to say it was a fluke, and brush it off as nothing important. But you don’t just accidentally create five chances.

You can’t say one way or the other until we see more of him. But if he has done it once, he can do it again.