Arsenal: Keep Matteo Guendouzi’s mountain a molehill

Arsenal’s one big lapse against Bournemouth came from youngster Matteo Guendouz, but that doesn’t mean that his mountain shouldn’t stay a molehill.

Prior to Arsenal whooping up on Bournemouth, I asked one question – can’t it all come together? Just once? Just once, can’t everything go perfectly, because it it does, this club could win 8-0 and it would be the greatest feeling in the whole damn world.

I almost got my wish against the Cherries. Ironically, I was one Granit Xhaka away from getting my wish, but that isn’t what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about Matteo Guendouzi, who had one big, glaring mistake to hand the visitors their only goal.

On the whole, Guendouzi did not have his best match. When put under pressure, he was forced into making some poor decisions, but, as someone who constantly defends Xhaka through his bad times, I’m here to make sure that we don’t make Matteo Guendouzi’s little molehill into a mountain.

It doesn’t need to be said again, but I’ll say it anyway: He is 19 years old. The fact that he is even in the state that he is currently in, mistake or no, is a huge testament to his unbelievable ability.

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From the moment we got him from Lorient, the expectations were pretty low. But he took care to skyrocket them by being arguably the sole bright spot in the first two matches of the season against Manchester City and Chelsea.

Then on, Guendouzi was up to those standards of showing us what he was capable of while still balancing the fact that he was, in fact, still primarily a prospect, with so much more room to grow if we just provide him the time and opportunity.

Guendouzi has never cost us in a match. Even his mistakes against Bournemouth didn’t cost us, we won with ease. For about twenty minutes, the question was raised whether his error would come back to bite us but, surprise surprise, it didn’t.

Xhaka has had many such situations blown wildly out of proportion (look at Southampton, for instance – and the Saints didn’t even capitalize on it). I hope that the fan base can be counted on not to blow Guendouzi’s mistake wildly out of proportion.

This isn’t a sign of things to come. It’s not a warning. I think we all know that, but in case there are any lingering doubters out there, rid yourself of that doubt. This kid is the real deal.