Arteta: Guimaraes Can Boost Arsenal's Game

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta thinks new player Bruno Guimaraes can help the club move to the next level. Guimaraes joined Arsenal after a £75m deal from Newcastle United.

The 28-year-old Brazilian midfielder was introduced to Arsenal fans at Emirates Stadium before the friendly match against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.

Guimaraes did not play in Arsenal’s 3-2 loss to Dortmund but is likely to make his debut against Como on Wednesday.

Arteta expressed his happiness about bringing Guimaraes to the team and praised his attitude since arriving. As reported by BBC Sport on Sunday, Arteta said, “I’m delighted to have him. We see very clearly, especially the energy that he brought immediately to the training ground, the hunger, the desire to come here and create a big history at the club.

“And that’s the ambition that we need. We want to go to the next level and are very, very much convinced that we’re going to need players with such a personality, desire and character to push everybody inside the organisation to go even higher.”

Arteta also shared what Guimaraes can bring to the team, noting his ability to play both defense and attack. He said, “On the pitch, versatility to play in two different positions in relation to what we want or the opponent does.”

He added, “A player which obviously has tremendous timing and intuition to win the ball back and progress play very, very fast. He’s a player that is very comfortable putting people through, moving between the lines, moving in behind.

“And then he’s a goal threat. He’s got a smell and a really good timing to get in the box. And he has the capacity to finish the actions.”

With Guimaraes joining, Arteta has even more choices in midfield. Players like Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Martin Zubimendi, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Eberechi Eze, and Mikel Merino are also available.

Arsenal has already signed Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge and goalkeeper Illan Meslier for free. They tried to sign Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr, but he chose to stay in Spain after signing a new six-year deal.

Despite this setback, Arteta mentioned that Arsenal is still active in the transfer market and could bring in more players. He said, “Well, that’s what we’re trying to do. If we have the right player in the market to make us much better. We are very much looking forward to that.”

The Arsenal manager also gave an update on injuries, confirming that Jurrien Timber is “weeks away” from returning. William Saliba is still recovering from a back injury.