Arsenal: Matteo Guendouzi proves there’s life without Torreira

Arsenal have come to rely heavily on Lucas Torreira, but without the Uruguayan, the club still found their successes at the feet of Matteo Guendouzi.

Arsenal didn’t defend particularly well, and their attack was lacking in sharpness, particularly early on. But there were two arenas where the Gunners did excel, and that was out wide, with their wingbacks (and Alex Iwobi) and in the midfield, where Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi were asked to be both the defensive spine (sans Lucas Torreira) as well as the support for the attack.

It’s been what many see as a major drawback of the 3-5-2 or the 3-4-3, not having that chance creation in behind, that support for superstar strikers, but (let me brag a little), as I keep saying, these are capable midfielders, versatile as can be, and with vision like they have, it’s only a matter of time before they prove themselves.

This was that time against Fulham.

Had this attack been sharper, Xhaka and Guendouzi would have shared an assist each at bare minimum. In two specific instances, they sent an attacker in on goal and needed only a finish to get the credit for setting it up, but both times the second part failed.

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I’ve known Xhaka could do it. I’ve known he could hold his own. Nothing learned there.

It was Guendouzi, starting ahead of a beleaguered Lucas Torreira, that really stepped out and showed that, Torreira be damned, he is perfectly capable of owning the role himself.

Only Xhaka won the ball back more times than Guendouzi and he was second on the team in completing dribbles, pushing out of the base of the midfield. He was excellent in that regard, same as Torreira has been.

Then you get down to the creation numbers. The wingbacks as a unit created four chances combined. The front three created five. Guendouzi and Xhaka, not necessarily known for their chance creation (even though, like I said, ask it of them and they will deliver), also had four combined chances, two of which were, as mentioned, obvious assists if only the move could have been capped off.

While Guendouzi proved himself capable of playing the Torreira role, I took this more as a sign that the three can be relied upon in bigger capacities in a 3-5-2. Trust them to do the creation. Trust them to do more. These are three of our best and brightest players (young, too), so let them do their thing.