Unai Emery has given a wide-ranging interview to SkySports and among the many topics covered was the improvement of certain players within the squad.
Now, Emery did not specifically point to only two players, he did clarify that there are a lot of players that have improved but it is significant that he highlighted Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira in particular.
‘I take a lot of satisfaction from players progressing individually and the improvement of their statistics,’ Emery said.
‘I think there are a lot of players who have made progress this season. There’s Matteo Guendouzi. ‘There’s Lucas Torreira. There’s also the statistics of the goalscorers together – Laca (Alexandre Lacazette) as much as Auba (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang). ‘They are both scoring an important number of goals.’
I am not sure that Torreira has improved significantly, if, at all, you have to remember that he previously played for Sampdoria in Serie A and is an Uruguayan international that cost us £26 Million. I honestly feel that his performances for us this season are what we expect for a player of his calibre that did not come cheap and it can be argued that his game has tailed off a bit in recent weeks.
Guendouzi has improved, he came from the French Ligue 2 and has made a massive jump and shown that he can handle playing in the Premier League and European competition, he can be impetuous on occasions but he is only 20 years old and is still a work in progress.
I expect that both Torreira and Guendouzi will be a lot better next season having experienced their first season in the Premier League but for me, Torreira has done what was expected from him, no more, whereas Guendouzi has performed above expectations.
Lol. He’s mentioned two players that weren’t at our club 12 months ago. Whether they improved after moving to arsenal is very much debatable…
Norwich are promoted btw. In the four seasons that they were in the prem over the past ten years, we have won at theirs just twice. Press would love us to lose there again just to they can headline us as “Farkeing Disasters”
Those are my 4 favourite players and our best 4 players. Aubameyang, Lacazette, Torreira and Guendouzi.
Aubameyang and Lacazette combined have scored 31 premier league goals this season and 40 total goals this season. Goals make me ?
Emery did well getting Torreira and Guendouzi
We’ve needed players like them for years
Hopefully he will get more quality players this summer
Guendouzi has performed above expectations??? Haha! Just what exactly were the expectations in that case then?! As far as am concerned, Guendouzi has been one of the worst performers this year only rivaled by El Neny and Mustafi. If Guendouzi starts versus Leicester, am afraid it’s another L on the road.
Be reasonable in your comments. The boy is only 20 and jumped from Ligue 2 to the Premier League where he has done very well in my opinion.
Wilshere and Fabregas were lighting up the midfield at 16 years old. I know Guendouzi is 20 but I’ve already seen enough from him to tell he lacks any unique skills whatsoever. He lacks strength, has poor tackling, passing, crossing and non existent vision. Does not drive through the midfield and does not win any headers. I can’t compare him to proper CMs like Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky or Ramsey. You keep wondering why our play is riddled with backwards and sideways passing? It’s because guys like Guendouzi do not offer any creativity or drive at the center of the park.
As always, however, I keep an open mind. If you can give me reason/qualities why you feel Guendouzi is any better than Wilshere who he replaced, am willing to change my in opinion regarding the player. As it stands though for me he is another headless chicken, the Iwobi of CM.
I agree with you mate ,while some games he looks ok ,for me he doesn’t look in the same class as the 2 players you highlighted ,he looks like a good player but nothing special .i would go as far as saying also Torreira is a good player but not in the class as some of the league top midfielders .
Both good solid players but never going to win us a league trophy.
For me..Matteo has been excellent, knowing it never easy coming from another league into the EPL. Expect better performances from him next session.
I think Guendouzi really really play well in the beginning if the season, but he was found out by opponents eventually and he became their targets. And even now opponents are unto him immediately he gets the ball so that makes it impossible for him to be at the level he was at the beginning of the season. Torreira was also very good until Emery asked him to become creative. I honestly don’t know if anyone has really improved under Emery.