Unai Emery: Guendouzi Can Become One Of The Premier League’s Best

Unai Emery reserves special praise for the 19-year-old…

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery lavished praise on Matteo Guendouzi ahead of our trip to Huddersfield and claimed that the teenager can go on to become one of the Premier League’s best, The Evening Standard reports.

Guendouzi joined the club last summer for a modest £8million and given his age, many wondered if he’d even feature for us this campaign.

Also, the fact that the Frenchman was signed from the second-tier of French football, it seemed as though he was one for the future.

However, after featuring heavily during pre-season against the likes of Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, Emery decided to start him in our opening Premier League game versus Manchester City.

In what was a tough game for the entire team, Guendouzi definitely showed bravery in his play as he constantly demanded the ball under pressure.

With our marquee summer-signing Lucas Torreira watching on from the bench, Guendouzi kept his place for the next four fixtures before being displaced by the Uruguayan.

For Emery, though, the former Lorient starlet showed enough to warrant consistent Premier League football.

“The first impression from him is very good,” Emery was quoted as saying.

“We saw this from the first weeks of pre-season when he arrived here and started training.

“For example, his very big decision to decide not to play with the national team in the summer because he wanted to stay and work with us to show his capacity in pre-season. He earned the possibility to take minutes in the first XI. 

“His adaptation was very quick. Now his progress is very good. He is very young. We played with Lucas Torreira and Guendouzi as midfielders at Manchester City. He is a very young player, his present is very good but his ambition is to grow a lot with us and become an important Premier League player,” he added.

Guendouzi’s form has certainly been rather sporadic this campaign, but that’s what you expect from a 19-year-old midfielder who’s new to this level.

What makes him stand out though is his bravery and refusal to shirk from any challenge. Whatever his career holds, that will stand him in good stead.