Unai Emery has singled out Matteo Guendouzi for special praise and has urged Arsenal youngster’s to follow his footsteps. Following the midfielders solid start to his second season with Arsenal, he earned himself his first call-up to the France national team during the current international break.
Guendouzi has started all four of the Gunners’ Premier League games so far this season and has notched up one assist for his side. The 20-year-old joined Arsenal from Ligue 2 side Lorient last summer and Unai Emery detailed how the Frenchman underwent his impressive transformation in the last twelve months at London Colney.
He said: “Matteo is a very good example for how we can develop our young players, with new young players or the spirit within the players who are here now.
“He started last year, at the beginning, with some doubts about his adaptation after he came from Lorient in the second division in France.
“He was very young, but his ambition and his wish to adapt very quickly, as well as his quality, were very good for us. He started playing and training with us, and after, his progress and development during the season was amazing.
“But also, we were working with him on some details we needed to improve with him – his food, his body, how we can work to make it stronger, his arms, his body, his legs.
“This year, I think he’s taken one step ahead, improving and also giving us one level more in his performances. We want to continue with him, working in each training session and in each match.
“For him and for us it’s a big challenge to take that step ahead. For other young players, his spirit, his progress, his development is a good example, for Willock, for Emile Smith Rowe, for Reiss Nelson. It’s a very good example for everybody.”
