Why was Matteo Guendouzi dropped?

Well, we now know why Matteo Guendouzi was dropped from the lineup for the Newcastle match two weeks ago, and folks, it’s a...doozy.

According to David Ornstein, the Arsenal midfielder had a training ground altercation with a teammate for which both players were told off by Mikel Arteta. Apparently Guendouzi was the “guiltier party,” but I’ll say it louder for those of you in the back — both players were lectured. Guendouzi is also said to have “briefly removed his shirt and waved it around” while at a local musical act during the team’s five-day training camp in Dubai.

So let’s get this straight, a thing happened that happens at training grounds around the professional footballing world and a kid was boisterous at a concert?

Oh the humanity.

Sure, Guendouzi has some maturing to do, but what 20-year old doesn’t? He has responded well, a sentiment reportedly shared by the brass at Arsenal. He took his medicine without spouting off to the media, played well against Olympiacos, and is back in the fold.

This feels a lot more like the new manager wanting to set the tone than anything particular to Guendouzi and his behavior going forward. I think whoever stepped out of line first was going to be made an example of. It just so happens that the guy who did is young and often plays in an overly-energetic, sometimes undisciplined manner, which allowed everyone to project their opinions of his play onto a relatively innocuous pair of incidents.

On the concert bit, Guendouzi probably thought this one was for North Carolina. Yes, that link is what you think it is. And on the training ground dust-up, ho-hum, stuff happens. Bottom line from all this noise: move along, nothing to see here.