Matteo Guendouzi insists there are no tensions in the Arsenal squad, despite reports in the English media, and tells the papers not to write the Gunners off.

Speaking to RMC Sport after Arsenal’s win over West Ham on Saturday, Guendouzi quickly dismissed any talk of problems in the squad. The English media have been avidly pushing a story about Mesut Özil falling out with Unai Emery, as they try to find a new way to work supporters up in the absence of Arsene Wenger.

Guendouzi claims everything is still going great so far though.

“No, there are never tensions,” he said. “We know what we are capable of, we have a great squad, great staff. It’s a great club, we know we can do great things this year.

“Of course we lost the first two matches but there were very positive things in those first two matches, it should be noted. So now we won against West Ham and maybe we showed people who didn’t believe in us that we will be there this season and you have to count on us until the end of the season.”

From the sounds of things, the squad feel the same way as anybody looking at the situation sensibly would. The first two results were disappointing, but nonetheless showed signs of improvement. The important thing was to start turning that progress into wins, and thankfully the first of those came against West Ham.

Now it’s just about getting a run going, and pushing all the nonsense from the media to one side. When they smell blood, like they clearly do with Özil missing a game, they’ll pounce and make up as much as they think they can get away with. Hopefully the players all know the truth, and can therefore just ignore the stories.