Matteo Guendouzi got himself into trouble after the Arsenal player was seen grabbing Neal Maupay by the neck during his club’s loss to Brighton at the weekend. But thankfully he has not been banned by the FA.
The FA have declared that the midfielder will not face any punishment since VAR did see the incident on the pitch but chose not to take any action against the Arsenal player. And speaking after this whole incident, Arsenal legend Perry Groves has insisted that Matteo Guendouzi should tone down and focus on improving his game on the pitch.
“When we show frustration we have to show it in the right way,” the Spaniard told talkSPORT. “I haven’t seen the images [of Guendouzi] or what happened, but we will talk about it if that is the case.
“Emotionally, we have to control the situations much better.
“The thing that annoys me is Guendouzi. He’s playing in central midfield but doesn’t have the awareness to play that role; getting the ball, getting on the half-turn, bringing people into the game…
“He has energy, like a dog chasing a tyre – his enthusiasm is what he’s about.
“But I’ve heard a few things that haven’t been great about Guendouzi’s attitude, about having a bit of humility. You want your players to be confident and a little bit arrogant on the pitch, but he’s not good enough to go around giving people verbal and giving people stick.
“The team aren’t good enough!
“If Maupay has been getting it in his ear all game from Guendouzi, and then he scores the winner, he’s absolutely within his right to go, ‘really, what have you got to say now? You want to give me stick? I’ve just scored the winner!’.
“And for Guendouzi to then grab him round the throat – which will get him a ban – someone needs to tell him to wind his neck in and concentrate on playing.”
The fact that Matteo Guendouzi has avoided suspension is great news for the Arsenal manager since both Xhaka and Lucas Torreira are out injured and next up, the Gunners take on Southampton, in yet another away fixture.
Under normal circumstances, Arteta would have loved to drop the Frenchman to the bench in order to push him away from all the limelight for some time but with so many injury crisis, the Arsenal boss will have no other option but to select him in his starting Xi once again.
