Morning all.
In the summer of the incremental update, we got a reasonably big increment yesterday from David Ornstein with regards Bruno Guimaraes.
🚨 Arsenal nearing total agreement with Newcastle United to sign Bruno Guimaraes. Desire among all parties to bring situation to close + deal now on course for completion; 28yo awaiting #NUFC permission to undergo medical & seal #AFC switch 🚨 @theathleticfc.bsky.socialwww.nytimes.com/athletic/743…
— David Ornstein (@david-ornstein.bsky.social) 2026-08-04T15:07:03.114Z
That’s been followed by further reporting about how the deal is almost done, and the BBC say, “The Gunners are now making preparations for the Brazil midfielder’s medical this week.”
He’s currently in Spain while Arsenal are in Ireland, so it probably makes sense for everything to happen once they get back to London. All going well, you imagine he’ll be there for the Borussia Dortmund game on Sunday. Whether he’s ready/able to play in that one is another matter, but it looks like this one is more or less done, then it’s about seeing what it means for how we play this season, and how it might help the team evolve.
Midfield will be a crowded place on his arrival though, with the Brazilian, Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and, as it stands, Fabio Vieira, all available to Mikel Arteta. Of course some of those aren’t with us right now, and in the case of Rice in particular, eased back into action when their holidays are over.
I will say, I’ve seen people talk about Kai Havertz being used in midfield, but that’s not something I’m especially keen to see outside some kind of emergency or injury crisis. It’s also interesting to note that on the official website, Arsenal currently list Lewis-Skelly as a defender despite most of his late season minutes coming in midfield. Guimaraes is going to take minutes from an established player one way or the other, but clearly the manager has identified him as having qualities the team needs or don’t have to the extent he would like. It’s who misses out most that we’ll have to wait and see, and the construction of our midfield and how that progresses over the course of the season will be fascinating.
Beyond that, there are reports of a meeting in Madrid today which might provide some clarity to the Vinicius Junior situation. There’s just so much reporting around this from all angles that it’s basically impossible to get a read on exactly what’s happening. All we can do is wait and see if some solid information emerges, and where that leaves us.
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So, Arsenal play a game of football with players we actually have later on this evening, and while for some it’s about building match fitness after their World Cup endeavours this summer, there are others who have a chance to stake a claim to early season minutes. I’m curious to get my first look at Christos Tzolis, for example, and all eyes again will be on Max Dowman after his impressive display against Girona.
He was a topic of discussion at our live event in Dublin last night, and from speaking to people afterwards, the sense of excitement around him is palpable. On the one hand, I’m cautious because of his age, he’s just 16, but at the same time I have eyes and I see what he does and how he does it, and it’s hard not to be enthused. I’m going to guess he and Tzolis will be the wide players this evening, with the new signing likely to be up against former Gunner Hector Bellerin who is now at Real Betis, and I’ll report back tomorrow on how it all went.
Update: Here’s a bit more Hector, chatting to Sid Lowe.
As I’m going to be at the game, live coverage is not an issue for me this evening, but if you bought the Arsenal pre-season ppv package, there’s good and bad news. The good is that you’re entitled to a refund after their technical snafu on Saturday for the Girona game, and you can find details of how to sort that out here. The bad news is that there won’t be any live coverage on the official website, and I wonder about YouTube because the game is listed as live on Premier Sports in Ireland and the UK, so that might be an impediment to that in this part of the world at least. No doubt there’ll be plenty of streams doing the rounds though, and hopefully they have the Dortmund and Como games sorted by the time they come around.
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Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning, but finally a big thanks to everyone who came out to the Sugar Club last night. It was great to see you all, the live discussion and Q&A was good fun, and it was nice to hang out afterwards for a couple of pints and a post-show chat. Hope you all enjoyed it, and no doubt we’ll see some of you again today around the game this evening.
For now, have a good one!
