Arsenal: Matteo Guendouzi back on the audition circuit

Arsenal move back into the FA Cup, meaning that it’s audition time for a lot of guys, including Matteo Guendouzi, who is back on the circuit.

Under Unai Emery, Matteo Guendouzi was an easy favorite. Arsenal looked to be building around the young man, filling out a schematic around his versatile approach, but ever since the downfall of Emery began and the Mikel Arteta era began, Guendouzi has been reverted to the prospect stages of his young career.

It was truly remarkable, his meteoric rise to the top, and it’s been disheartening to see his subsequent plateauing, but this is all part of the growing process. It’s not like he can blow up and become an international sensation every year.

Sometimes he is going to have to take a step back, reestablish, and build from his foundation. That’s what’s going on here. Mikel Arteta’s “everyone must fight for their place” takes no prisoners. And Guendouzi has to fight.

It wasn’t that long ago that Guendouzi felt untouchable. At least under Emery he was. But now that he has to fight for his place again, he is back on the audition circuit, taking each appearance as a chance to prove that he should be where he was under Emery.

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That’s the thing though. It’s not even like Guendouzi is one of the only guys to be forced into proving himself. According to Arteta, everyone is. That includes the guys higher up on the wage charts. Though we have yet to see Arteta pull any punches with their starting jobs.

Whatever the case, we have yet to see the best of Guendouzi since Arteta took over. Mostly because we haven’t seen much of him.

Guendouzi has only featured as a substitute, which is always a dicey position to be thrown into. This will be his first lengthy attempt to prove that he can run this midfield, and seeing as how his supporting cast is going to be a bit shaky, more responsibility falls on his shoulders to be a bigger part of the match.

The other issue is that he will have to prove himself worthy of supplanting either Granit Xhaka or Lucas Torreira, and I’m not sure how likely that is. The best he can hope for is a midfield three.

But that isn’t all that unlikely, is it? Guendouzi has the tools to break back into the Premier League, he just has to prove it in midweek fixtures.