Tavares and Guendouzi both played all 90 minutes as Tottenham Hotspur beat Marseille 2-0 in the Champions League.
Matteo Guendouzi and Nuno Tavares both went back to North London when they started for Marseille against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League.
Guendouzi, a midfielder who used to play for Arsenal, joined the Ligue 1 team for good this summer after being on loan there last year. Tavares, a fullback who used to play for Arsenal, is currently on loan in France for the whole season from the Gunners. Spurs fans booed every time either player touched the ball, and the home team won 2-0 in their first Champions League game since 2020.
Tavares said that he wanted Marseille to be able to sign him for good at the end of the loan, but Arsenal wouldn’t let him put that in the contract. Since he joined Marseille, the 22-year-old has been playing as a wing-back, which Owen Hargreaves thinks is his best position.
Hargreaves told BT Sport, “It didn’t really work out for him at Arsenal.”
“He is a great attacker, but at Arsenal he played in the back four, which is a totally different position. He has been great as a wing-back for Marseille. He’s been doing a great job. All wing-backs want to attack, and they all do it better when they do. At Arsenal, where he only played defense, he had trouble.”
Guendouzi played in all 38 league games for Marseille last year, helping them finish second in Ligue 1. He also played for them in the Europa League, where they made it to the semi-finals. Once again, this season, Guendouzi appears to be ever-present in Igor Tudor’s midfield.
Former Spurs striker Peter Crouch said, “The manager is a little bit more workmanlike, which is why Guendouzi gets the nod over [Dimitri] Payet.”
“He is playing in a better spot. He had some good times at Arsenal, but he seems to be thriving and at home at Marseille.”
