Arteta Reveals What Bruno Guimaraes Will Bring To Arsenal

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes Bruno Guimaraes can give his side a new edge after describing the £75m signing as a player who will “ignite something different” at the club.

Naija News reports that the Gunners officially announced Guimaraes’ arrival from Newcastle United on Saturday, with the 28-year-old midfielder presented to supporters at the Emirates Stadium before Sunday’s friendly against Borussia Dortmund.

Guimaraes did not feature in Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat to Dortmund, but he could make his debut when the Gunners face Como on Wednesday.

Arteta was delighted with the midfielder’s arrival and explained why Arsenal made such a strong push to sign him.

“I think he describes himself as a warrior,” he said. “I think he’s a warrior with a tremendous quality as well and intuition and leadership and charisma that is 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 long 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.”

The arrival of Guimaraes gives Arteta even more options in midfield, with Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Martin Zubimendi, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Eberechi Eze and Mikel Merino also available.

Arteta expects the Brazilian to provide Arsenal with greater versatility and an added threat in attack as they attempt to defend their Premier League title.

“On the pitch, versatility to play in two different positions in relation to what we want or the opponent does,” he said.

“A player who 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.”

Guimaraes is the latest addition to an Arsenal squad that has already welcomed Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge and goalkeeper Illan Meslier on a free transfer.

Arsenal also made an ambitious attempt to sign Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr, but the Brazil international instead committed his future to the Spanish giants by signing a new six-year contract.

Arteta, however, insists Arsenal will continue to look for opportunities to strengthen before the transfer window closes.

“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 coach said.

The Arsenal boss also provided an update on the club’s injury situation.

Jurrien Timber remains “weeks away” from returning to full fitness, while William Saliba is also facing an extended spell on the sidelines as he continues his recovery from a back injury.