Arsenal: Matteo Guendouzi, the present and the future

Last season, Matteo Guendouzi was seen as the future of Arsenal football club. This year, he is ready to be both the future and the present.

When Arsenal spent £6 million on an unknown 19-year-old French division-two player, there were the normal groans of expectation for more. As is ever-present among the Gunners fan base, there was a frustration with the club’s seeming insistence to buy young, to invest in potential, but never to reliably sign the real and ready thing.

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Little did they know, Matteo Guendouzi would quickly flourish. In his very first outings in a pre-season tour of Singapore, it was clear that the flame-haired midfielder was no normal teenager. The control and accuracy of his passing, his confidence as he demanded the ball, even when under pressure, the verve and carefree commitment that comes with the beautiful exuberance of youth. From the very first sprayed pass of the ball, it was clear that Guendouzi was special.

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Throughout his first season in north London, Guendouzi proceeded to illustrate his undoubted quality. Consistency was not something he had yet mastered, neither was positional discipline, but in games where his hair-raising approach to a ground-gobbling midfield role was perfectly suited, it was undeniable: he was set to be a truly remarkable central midfielder.

But much of the excitement surrounding Guendouzi was related to his potential, not his present. While there was a verve growing with every drive forward from midfield, there was also a sense of ‘he’s just not ready yet’. His tendency to go wandering, his over-enthusiasm getting the better of him, the natural inconsistencies that come with youth. He was talented, no doubt, but was he ready to anchor a Premier League midfield?

Last season, no, he was not. But this year, the Frenchman, who was called up for the senior national team in place of Paul Pogba this week, is showing that he is not one for the future. He is for the present also.

His performance against Spurs in Sunday’s North London Derby was sensational. He showed the passing range and progressive bravery that Granit Xhaka was meant to. He was athletic, committed, mobile and intelligent, defensively aware and relentlessly successful in one-on-one duels. Most importantly, though, he was disciplined, his striding confidence now looking controlled and contained, not raw and untamed.

Guendouzi is now ready to be Arsenal’s present, not just their future. With Xhaka toiling defensively once more, and his lauded passing also deteriorating to the point that it as much a hindrance as a help, chiefly when he incessantly passed back into his defensive third against Liverpool, inviting a suffocating high press to squeeze a little tighter around the neck, and Lucas Torreira not possessing the quality on the ball, his terrier-like attitude a perfect complement but not a midfield building block for a Unai Emery, possession-based team, Guendouzi has the opportunity to make the central midfield his own.

He is the future of the central midfield, and very few would dispute that. But with the progression he has made this season, he is also now the present, and that is very exciting indeed.