Arsenal: Matteo Guendouzi took a massive step forward

Arsenal have a true gem in Matteo Guendouzi, but he still has a a lot growth to look forward to. Chelsea proved that he is most certainly learning, however.

It was clear what Unai Emery was hoping to get from his Arsenal starting XI. By starting a midfield three, he wanted to make sure he won the battle of then midfields and he accomplished that. I would have been happy seeing Xhaka and Torreira out there as a duo, but adding Matteo Guendouzi gave the young Frenchman another chance to show how much he has improved in such a little time.

His raw ability has been apparent from the moment he was first deployed in the red and white, and his passing has grown over the matches as his confidence has improved, but there was always one thing that blighted him – positional awareness.

Guendouzi had a lot of trouble knowing when to stand his ground and when to blindly charge into the opponent’s firing lines hoping to win the ball back or, when with the ball, hoping to make something happen.

Mostly though, when he was without the ball, there didn’t seem to be any understanding of where he should be. He would drift wide, bombard forward, drop into the defense, and there rarely appeared any reason he was making these decisions.

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Against Chelsea, we saw positional awareness, particularly in his understanding of Sead Kolasinac and the left side of the pitch. Guendouzi rarely left that side, whether attacking or defending.

Most impressively, any time Kolasinac would do his usual marauding runs forward, Guendouzi was quick to drop back into the left back role and hold his ground. That is all I’ve ever wanted to see from him – an understanding of when to hold his ground.

That’s a hard skill to learn for an eager young talent though, especially one with the work ethic of Guendouzi, who can (and does) cover so much ground in the hopes of asserting himself on every single minute of every match.

But that’s an unrealistic goal, so that’s when the maturity comes in of holding one’s ground, and he did that to near perfection against Chelsea.

Don’t see why we would deviate from the midfield three again (like… ever) if Guendouzi can play as effectively as he did. He’s certainly the third wheel, but he can make up the ground pretty quickly if he plays like that.