The Arsenal manager praised the £75m midfielder after a 1-0 win at home to Hull City, though he admitted his side must be more efficient in front of goal.
Mikel Arteta has said Bruno Guimaraes is “hitting serious levels” after Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Hull City on Saturday. Martin Odegaard scored the second-half goal that settled the match, and Arsenal moved six points clear at the top of the Premier League after Manchester City lost 3-1 at Nottingham Forest. Guimaraes was making only his fourth league start of the season since his £75m move from Newcastle United in the summer. The Brazil international played alongside Declan Rice in midfield.
Arteta’s praise for Guimaraes
“He’s much better, he had a massive impact, he’s hitting serious levels now, but we can still take him to another level,” Arteta said after the match. “That’s my conviction, I told him that in the dressing room. He owned a lot of moments in the game but there is still much more to come.”
According to the match statistics in the source material, Guimaraes played about 89 minutes before Martin Zubimendi replaced him. He completed 89% of his passes, made three tackles and two key passes, and won six of his 10 recorded duels. He also had two shots, neither on target, and was not credited with a goal or assist.
Arteta also praised Noni Madueke, who again impressed on the right flank with Bukayo Saka absent. “That’s the second part of the story, the first is that you need to earn the right to be able to do that,” he said. “Noni did that, he reacted to not playing often, went away, started to train and was a different Noni. He wasn’t going to accept that situation, he meant business, and since then he has been incredible. Now you are in that position, he needs to hone and improve it, so let’s see if he can do that.”
Arteta said on 6 November that Saka would be unavailable for a while and that it was too early to give a return date. He is expected to miss the international break.
A record-equalling start
Arsenal have 27 points from their first 10 league games, equalling their best start in a Premier League season. They have won nine of those matches. Saturday was their fifth consecutive league win, according to Reuters, and the run began after a defeat at Brighton before the previous international break.
According to Opta, Arsenal have now won 10 successive home games in all competitions. Their only longer home winning run under Arteta was 12 matches in November 2022.
The defensive record is also strong. Opta says Arsenal have kept seven clean sheets in their opening 10 league games. Only three clubs have recorded more at this stage since the Premier League began: Birmingham City in 2003-04, Chelsea in 2004-05 and Manchester United in 2017-18, each with eight. Arsenal have gone four league matches without conceding, their longest such run since a five-match sequence between December 2005 and January 2006. It was also their 34th 1-0 league win under Arteta, more than any other Premier League club since he took charge in December 2019.
Questions in attack
Despite the win, Arteta accepted that Arsenal need to be sharper in front of goal. According to Sky Sports, they attempted 21 shots but generated an expected-goals (xG) total of only 1.08, while Hull managed 0.34 xG from seven attempts. Arsenal had 66.9% of possession, completed 490 passes and had 10 shots on target. Hull completed 190 passes and had two on target.
Reuters reported that Arteta said his side needed to be more efficient and pragmatic, and that he was frustrated that more chances were not taken, which left the result uncertain until the final whistle. He said the coming international break would give him a chance to assess what the team still needs to improve.
Hull goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis made nine saves, according to Sky Sports, and kept his side in the contest until Odegaard scored. Opta says Hull midfielder Elliot Stroud nearly opened the scoring in the 19th minute, when David Raya made a diving save and Rice recovered to stop Tim Iroegbunam from taking the rebound. In the 87th minute, Madueke rounded Tzolakis, but Brooke Norton-Cuffy cleared the ball near the goal line.
Rice and the VAR decision
Arteta dismissed concerns about Rice, who was substituted in the 63rd minute. Asked whether the midfielder was all right, Arteta said he was fine, according to Yahoo Sports. Rice has started all 10 of Arsenal’s league games this season and played the full match against Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Wednesday. Arteta did not attribute the change to a specific fitness plan.
Sky Sports reported that officials reviewed an incident in which Hull defender Nobel Mendy pulled Kai Havertz’s shirt in the penalty area, but ruled that Havertz had been offside beforehand, so no penalty was awarded. Arteta said he had not watched the incident again and needed to understand how the offside decision affected the penalty before giving an opinion, according to AOL. Havertz has now been caught offside 15 times this season, and Arsenal have been flagged 35 times in their first 10 league games. Arteta acknowledged that the timing of his team’s attacking runs needs to improve.
Hull’s winless run
Hull have gone eight Premier League games without a win after their promising start. Opta says they have averaged only 33.2% possession this season, the third-lowest figure for any club’s first 10 matches since 2003-04.
City slip again
Manchester City’s 3-1 defeat at Forest on Saturday evening was their third consecutive league loss, according to Reuters. Liam Delap scored twice, and Jair Cunha also scored for Forest, while Rayan Cherki pulled one back for City. Arsenal’s six-point lead over City is therefore intact heading into the international break.
Arsenal’s next league match is away to Newcastle United on Saturday 21 November at 5.30pm GMT. It will be Guimaraes’ next scheduled league fixture against his former club.
