Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has heaped praise on new signing Bruno Guimarães, suggesting the Brazilian midfielder possesses the qualities to elevate the Premier League champions to another level. The 28-year-old was unveiled to supporters at the Emirates Stadium ahead of Sunday's Emirates Cup clash against Borussia Dortmund, shortly after completing a £75million transfer from Newcastle United on a four-year contract.
Guimarães received an enthusiastic welcome from the home crowd, prompting Arteta to speak glowingly about the midfielder's character and potential impact. "You can see the immediate reaction," Arteta told the club's official website. "I think he describes himself as a warrior. 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 think he's going to push everybody inside the team as well and that's the type of player that we need."
The Brazilian arrives to join an already stacked midfield unit at the Emirates, featuring Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Mikel Merino, Martín Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze. Guimarães watched from the sidelines as his new teammates fell to a 3-2 defeat against the Bundesliga outfit, though the result carries little weight given the pre-season nature of the encounter.
Ethan Nwaneri opened the scoring for Arsenal before Viktor Gyökeres converted a penalty, but Dortmund responded through goals from Samuele Inácio, Konstantinos Karetsas and Joane Gadou to claim victory. Arsenal did, however, come out on top in a pre-arranged penalty shootout that followed, winning 5-4.
Despite that consolation, Arteta expressed frustration with aspects of his side's performance. "Disappointed that we lost the game," he admitted. "I think there were some poor moments where we were not very recognisable, especially in set-pieces and defending actions and timings that we are normally very efficient in. Some other very, very positive attacking combinations, big chances that didn't finish in anything because of the final pass because they were completely open. But, overall, disappointed because you want to win the games in any context and today, we haven't managed to do that."
The fixture also marked Ødegaard's first pre-season minutes following his World Cup exertions, with Arteta set to have his complete squad available from Monday onwards. Arsenal enter the new campaign aiming to build on a landmark season that saw them end a 22-year wait for the Premier League title, while also reaching both the Champions League and Carabao Cup finals.
Elsewhere, Manchester City concluded their Asia pre-season tour with a comfortable 3-1 win over Atlético Madrid in Seoul, coming from behind to secure victory in front of a crowd exceeding 50,000. Omar Marmoush struck twice in quick succession early in the second half, with substitute Rayan Aït-Nouri adding a third in stoppage time. Wingers Antoine Semenyo and Savinho both impressed, with Semenyo providing assists throughout the tour.
New City boss Enzo Maresca, who has taken over from Pep Guardiola, described the performance as encouraging. "Overall, it was a very good test against one of the best teams in Europe," he said. "Credit to the players for the effort they have done. From tomorrow pre-season is finished and the real business starts."
Maresca acknowledged there remains room for improvement in front of goal despite the win. "We need to be clinical. It's something we need to improve," he noted. "Slowly we are getting there and with Erling (Haaland) we can be even more dangerous. Today Omar scored twice. This is a boost." City's tour also included a draw with Inter followed by a shootout loss, plus a win over a K League All-Stars selection.
Based on reporting from Guardian Football.