After a dire November for Arsenal, the club had the unenviable task of picking out nominees for Player of the Month this week.
Arsenal’s results in November were horrible, even by the low standards set by the Gunners for the month. Unai Emery’s side lost to Leicester and Frankfurt, drew with Vitoria, Wolves and Southampton, beat no one and got Emery sacked.
As a result, it’s been hard to look at the positives in terms of individual performances. However, Arsenal had to nominate their candidates for Player of the Month on Tuesday anyway.
The one stand-out candidate selected was Bernd Leno. Despite failing to keep a clean sheet in his four appearances, Arsenal probably would have lost all four games with another goalkeeper starting. He made some fantastic saves to at least keep things competitive.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was also an easy selection, even if he did drop off a bit compared to his form at the start of the campaign – when he even managed to win the Premier League’s Player of the Month award for the entire division.
The striker scored twice in four games, which was half of Arsenal’s goals in those matches.
The final choice was Matteo Guendouzi. Perhaps Arsenal thought that after winning the award in September and finishing second in October, Guendouzi had earned enough credit with the fans to be a safe pick.
Unfortunately, most supporters are in agreement that the 20-year-old’s game dropped off significantly in November. As a result, the responses suggested they were surprised to see Guendouzi get a nomination.
I love Matteo, but what did he do to merit being shortlisted? I might be wrong but I think last month he really struggled. Going by the stats, Bernd Leno would be my pick.
— WelBeast (@WellBeast) December 3, 2019
Not sure why Guendouzi is up for it 🤔
— annienelson (@apnelson1) December 3, 2019
Why is Guendouzi there???
— David Emaifo (@DavidEmaifo) December 3, 2019
Guendouzi? He has been awful..
— Marios Christodoulou (@Chickadoodoo85) December 3, 2019
It’s up to Freddie Ljungberg’s side to ensure we have some less controversial picks for the award next month.