Mikel Arteta believes the signing of Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes is the kind of player Arsenal need to help elevate them to the next level.
Guimaraes completed his reported £75m move to North London earlier this week, and was officially unveiled in front of the Arsenal supporters at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The 28-year-old watched his new team lose, with Borussia Dortmund coming out on top with a 3-2 win to lift the Emirates Cup.
But that did nothing to dampen the spirits of the Arsenal fans after seeing a glimpse of their new Brazilian midfielder, who could make his debut against Como next Wednesday.
Guimaraes’ arrival will further improve Arsenal’s midfield, with Martin Odegaard, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze also options.
He has won more duels (1,030) and fouls (410) than any other player in the Premier League since making his debut in the competition in February 2022, while the only midfielder to cover more distance than the Brazilian (1,641km) is new midfield partner Rice (1,703).
Guimaraes also brings quality in attack. Only Mohamed Salah (94.5%) and Dejan Kulusevski (94.6%) have created a higher share of their chances from open play in the Premier League than his 92.5% among players with a minimum of 200 chances created in the competition since his debut.
“I think he describes himself as a warrior,” Arteta said. “I think he’s a warrior with tremendous qualities as well and intuition, leadership and charisma that are going to help us.
“That is going to really ignite something different in the team. 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.
“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.”
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Guimaraes was not included in Arsenal’s squad for their defeat to Dortmund, though plenty of first-team faces were on show against the Bundesliga giants.
Samuele Inacio’s seventh-minute goal was followed up by a stunning strike from Konstantinos Karetsas to put Nico Kovac’s side in control heading into the break.
But Arsenal hit back when Christos Tzolis teed up Ethan Nwaneri in the 54th minute, though Dortmund quickly restored their two-goal advantage through Joane Gadou.
Viktor Gyokeres’ 69th-minute penalty reduced the deficit once more, but Arsenal were unable to find a winner in the closing stages, with Gabriel Martinelli seeing a goal ruled out for a marginal offside following a quick corner routine.
Arsenal have now conceded six goals in their last two pre-season games, following their 3-1 defeat to Real Betis earlier this week, and Arteta was asked whether signing a defender had become a priority.
“I wouldn’t go there just to put an isolated there. We conceded some poor goals the other day, some poor goals today,” Arteta added.
“In the way we competed, especially. But that’s a collective responsibility. So, we need to improve with the players that we have. And we want to improve for sure.”
Arsenal have only signed three new players this summer, along with making Piero Hincapie’s loan from Bayer Leverkusen permanent, but they have still been linked with several players before their domestic campaign begins.
Ezri Konsa and Bradley Barcola have both reportedly been of interest to Arsenal, while the Gunners failed in an ambitious attempt to sign Vinicius Junior.
“Well, that’s what we’re trying to do [sign more players],” Arteta said. “If we have the right player in the market to make us much better. We are looking forward to that.”
