Different manager, same result against Manchester City.
In Arsene Wenger’s final season, Arsenal lost three times to Manchester City with an aggregate score of 9-1 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s side.
While there was nothing embarrassing about Unai Emery’s first game in the Emirates helm – a lot of teams will fall heavier to City than 2-0 – the animated Spaniard could not stop the rot against City.
As it were, Raheem Sterling’s well-taken first-half strike proved the difference as Guardiola’s City got their title defence up and running with three satisfying points in North London.
Emery’s line-up was ballsy. The former Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla head coach started Ainsley Maitland-Niles at left-back and Mattéo Guendouzi in holding midfield alongside Granit Xhaka.
While Arsenal fans will have grown accustomed to Maitland-Niles last season, new signing Guendouzi is more of an unknown quantity. The 19-year-old Frenchman was signed from Ligue 2 side Lorient, so Arsenal fans would have been excused for regarding their new recruit as ‘one for the future.’
But no, while Uruguay international Lucas Torreira – signed from Sampdoria for £26m – only made the bench, Guendouzi was handed a start against the champions after an impressive showing during the Gunners’ pre-season endeavours.
As highlighted by France-based journalist Matt Spiro, Guendouzi’s last competitive game was in the second tier of French football for Lorient against Valenciennes, in front of 8,000 people.
Matteo Guendouzi's last competitive game was French 2nd division clash between Lorient and Valenciennes, played in front of 8,000. The 19 year old starts for #Arsenal today against Manchester City in front of 60,000
— Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) August 12, 2018
To progress to the point where he is starting in a heavyweight clash against the Premier League’s all-conquering force is remarkable. What’s more remarkable still is that Guendouzi did not look out of place. Not one bit.
Guendouzi’s afternoon didn’t start well, admittedly. The midfielder should have done more to stop Sterling as the winger cut inside in the build-up to his goal. If such a portent of a baptism of fire unsettled Guendouzi, he did not show it.
Instead, the France U20 international constantly dropped deep and made himself available, unmoved by the inevitable swarm of City players pressing him once the ball touched his foot. There were times when Petr Cech’s distribution didn’t help Guendouzi, yet he still managed to show impressive levels of maturity and tenacity during his initiation into elite-level football.
The Paris-born starlet is clearly a work in progress. For all his gritty, combative exertions in the centre of the park, he almost gifted City a second goal. Completely misjudging a clearance, Guendouzi missed the ball as Sergio Aguero stole away. Fortunately, the usually clinical Argentine striker spared the youngster’s blushes by failing to beat Cech.
Once again, Guendouzi kept his head up and kept going. Overall, he won seven midfield duels, made four interceptions and landed three tackles, suggesting that he is the dogged, industrious midfield presence Arsenal have so often lacked in recent years.
It was telling, too, that he stayed on the pitch while the more experienced Xhaka was hooked off in the 70th-minute for Torreira.
If Arsenal are associated with pretty, fluid passing football without much of a spine, Guendouzi is clearly here to buck the trend.
With his natural inclination for ‘getting stuck in’ and his Sideshow Bob-esque haircut, he will be a popular figure among Arsenal fans. While it was a gloomy start to Emery’s reign, Arsenal can draw positives from having unearthed what looks like a real gem of a midfielder. He needs time, though; that much is clear.
