AFCON 2025
After prolonged negotiations between Arsenal and Newcastle United, the Brazilian midfielder is finally on the verge of becoming an Arsenal player, with a £75 million agreement reportedly reached between the two clubs.
Guimarães has completed his medical and agreed a four-year contract, bringing an end to one of the longer-running pursuits of Arteta’s Arsenal project.
At 28, and with years of Premier League football already behind him, Guimarães is not arriving in north London as a player who needs time to understand English football.
He knows the league. He knows the demands. He knows what it means to play under pressure.
More importantly, he knows how to influence a game from the middle of the pitch.
That could make him particularly valuable to an Arsenal side preparing to defend its Premier League title while competing across the Champions League and domestic competitions.
A midfielder built for Arteta
Guimarães does not fit neatly into one midfield category.
He can play as a No. 6, operating deep and helping his team build from the back, but he is equally comfortable stepping forward as an No. 8, pressing opponents, carrying the ball and arriving in dangerous areas.
That versatility is perhaps his greatest attraction to Arteta.
Arsenal’s midfield demands more than simply passing the ball from one player to another. It requires players who can receive possession under pressure, win duels, cover spaces, press aggressively and still have the technical quality to move the team forward.
He is physically aggressive without sacrificing control. He is comfortable receiving the ball in congested areas and has the composure to play through pressure rather than simply around it.
And there is a growing attacking dimension to his game.
In the 2025-26 Premier League season, he finished as Newcastle’s top scorer with nine goals, while also ranking among the club’s leading chance creators.
That matters because Arsenal do not necessarily need another specialist creator.
They already have Martin Ødegaard.
What Arteta can gain from Guimarães is something slightly different: a midfielder who can win the ball, keep it, carry it forward and still threaten the opposition goal.
That makes him complementary to the players already in Arsenal’s midfield rather than a direct replacement for them.
The Rice partnership could be crucial
Perhaps the most intriguing question is how Guimarães will fit alongside Declan Rice.
Rice has developed into one of Arsenal’s most important players since joining from West Ham, capable of operating both as a defensive midfielder and a more advanced No. 8.
Guimarães gives Arteta another player with that same positional flexibility.
Rather than forcing one player to carry the entire physical and defensive burden of midfield, Arsenal could distribute those responsibilities between Rice and Guimarães.
One can drop. The other can advance. One can press. The other can cover.
And both are technically capable of progressing possession.
That could give Ødegaard greater freedom to occupy the spaces where Arsenal’s captain is most dangerous.
It would also give Arteta another way of controlling matches.
Against teams that sit deep, Guimarães can contribute through his passing and ability to arrive around the box. Against aggressive opponents, his press resistance and physicality can help Arsenal survive pressure and turn defence into attack.
For a manager obsessed with control, that flexibility is difficult to ignore.
He has already passed the Premier League test
There is another advantage Arsenal are getting for their money: certainty.
Transfers from overseas always carry an element of risk. Players have to adapt to the pace, physicality, weather, travel and tactical demands of English football.
Guimarães has already done all of that.
Since arriving at Newcastle from Lyon in January 2022, he has developed into one of the Premier League’s most influential midfielders and has made more than 150 league appearances.
He has also experienced the pressure that comes with being the central figure in a team with major ambitions.
At Newcastle, Guimarães was not simply another member of the midfield.
He became the heartbeat of the side.
He was eventually handed the captaincy and helped lead Newcastle to the 2025 Carabao Cup, adding a major domestic trophy to his growing résumé.
That experience should serve him well at Arsenal.
He will be joining a team where expectations are considerably higher and every dropped point is scrutinised. But Guimarães has already spent years playing in a Premier League environment where his performances were central to Newcastle’s ambitions.
There should be little question about whether he can handle the league.
The question is how much better he can become surrounded by Arsenal’s quality.
