Arsenal's Bruno Guimaraes move asserts intent to win everything — Arteta can go for it. Will he?

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is a Premier League champion at long last, and his club have given him the keys to a vehicle that can repeat the feat and then some. The Gunners have added one of the best midfielders in the world and perhaps the most versatile one in Brazilian star Bruno Guimaraes, late of Newcastle United. MORE — Arsenal agree $100M fee for Bruno Guimaraes Guimaraes, 28, can play any position in the midfield three and has a contagious charisma that moves any team up a few notches. Arsenal won the Premier League last season but had a look at several more trophies. Arteta received some grief for his timid teams at times. That was fair, as Arsenal occasionally looked like the team least likely to lose the title rather than win it. PSG's total control of the Gunners — 75% possession — in the Champions League Final further showed their room for improvement. This feels as consequential to two Premier League teams as any move since the Gunners bought Declan Rice from West Ham United. Arsenal have depth to defend Premier League crown, pursue Champions League The Gunners will have to weather an injury to William Saliba, but otherwise emerge from the summer in pretty great shape. David Raya, Mikel Merino, and Martin Zubimendi return as World Cup winners while Leandro Trossard is the only meaningful exit of the summer and may well be ably replaced by Christos Tzolis. Furthermore, Trossard will be 32 in December and Arsenal have accumulated plenty of talent beyond Tzolis over the years to compete for wing time as Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke were purchased last season and Max Dowman continues to grow as a world-class talent. Adding Guimaraes almost seems unfair, but this feels more like Arsenal acknowledging the work down in Manchester in what has seemingly become a two-horse race for the Premier League crown. Yes, Liverpool and Chelsea ooze talent and Manchester United have invested in Michael Carrick's midfield, but all three of those programs — ably-guided or not — are in their first full seasons with a new boss. The Blues and Reds are in their first seasons with said managers, period. Manchester City are also working with a new boss, but he's a man who is more familiar with his 'new' club than Andoni Iraola and Xabi Alonso are with theirs. And it would be easy to forget that the City who ended the 2025-26 season looked like the best team in the division without Josko Gvardiol and while Antoine Semenyo, Marc Guehi, and Rayan Cherki adjusted to their new team. Then there's Rodri, who looked more like himself even before he went on to win the Golden Ball at the World Cup. It could end up being a more than two-horse race for the title but Arsenal have done enough with the Guimaraes move to guarantee there are stallions in the starting gates. We’ll learn about Mikel Arteta’s ideal football this season Arteta is a heck of a manager, a Premier League champion capable of keeping the ball and biting into almost every opponent's preferred game plan. Now you can cross "almost" off that last sentence. Many — this writer included — pleaded for Arteta to go after the game more last season, especially against top competition. Arteta often refused and that was good enough to win the league, though there were plenty of games like the UCL Final versus PSG that showed he was either unprepared to fight fire with fire or simply didn't have the horses for the race. If you believe the latter, than every single thing about last season was prudent and Arsenal won the league the possible way. They'd need to drastically improve their midfield set-up in order to win a Champions League. And they've very much done that. So how different will it look from Arteta, because he now has the ingredients to out-cook any chef in the kitchen. It's a delicious challenge for a manager if we stick with the food analogy. His team have leveled up, and his club's now raised the bar for him. We'll be watching those early big games to see how long it takes for Arteta to find comfort with his new expectations and status. Will it be transformation? Will it be evolution? Or was Arteta already the most adventurous version of himself?