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Arsenal have a sparkling gem in Matteo Guendouzi, and he continues to sparkle with yet another obvious strength—his remarkably self-awareness.
This has not been Matteo Guendouzi‘s best season at Arsenal. But that’s not saying much. Because it’s only his second year and last year was so tremendous that it was going to be nearly impossible to top.
He just hasn’t played as much under Mikel Arteta, and that’s left him turning introspective, trying to understand better what he can do to get back out onto the pitch on a more regular basis.
In an interview for the club website, Guendouzi showed a remarkable maturity and self-awareness that can be added to his ever-expanding tool belt. In the interview, he spoke about how fans expected more from him now. How he’d given a glimpse of what he could do in his first year, but that first year was still him as a young, unknown prospect.
That status wore off really quickly given how much we saw him play and improve, and now Guendouzi is dead right. We expect more from him now. We expect him to weed out the silly mistakes, the poor decisions, the frantic play when matches get a bit chaotic.
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I know it’s a cliche, and I rigorously hate cliche’s, but the first step in fixing a problem is identifying it. And it’s not even like this is a problem. It’s just a necessary step forward. More is expected of him now, so he needs to provide that more. That little bit extra.
Maturity is such a big step forward for someone in Guendouzi’s shoes. Not every young player is able to assess their own situation and adjust accordingly. So just knowing that he is taking this time off to analyze what he can do better proves that all the hype that’s been piled on him, and the rumored £60m+ value, isn’t misplaced. It’s exactly where it should be. And to add to that, the only thing more exciting than Guendouzi right now, is Guendouzi tomorrow.
The dude is only 20 years old and he’s already showing more than a lot of mid-20’s midfielders. Not just on the pitch, but off it. Not just physically, but mentally. Not just for himself, but for those around him.
Anyway, this was just me gushing about one small sentence he said, because he’s just such an easy player to gush about.