Arteta hails Bruno Guimarães as a 'warrior' after Emirates Cup introduction; Maresca praises City's wide players

Mikel Arteta introduced Bruno Guimarães to Arsenal supporters at the Emirates Stadium ahead of Sunday’s 3-2 Emirates Cup defeat by Borussia Dortmund, and said the Brazil midfielder could “ignite something different” in the team.

In Seoul, Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca praised his wide players after a 3-1 victory over Atlético Madrid that wrapped up City’s preseason tour of Asia.

Guimarães completed a £75m move from Newcastle and signed a four-year deal before being presented to Arsenal fans; he joins a midfield that already includes Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Mikel Merino, Martin Zubimendi and Eberechi Eze and received a warm reception on his debut day.

“You can see the immediate reaction,” Arteta told the club website after Guimarães was given a warm reception by supporters. “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.”

Ethan Nwaneri’s strike and Viktor Gyökeres’ penalty were not enough to prevent Arsenal’s 3-2 defeat; Samuele Inácio, Konstantinos Karetsas and Joane Gadou scored for Borussia Dortmund, and Arsenal won a pre-arranged penalty shootout 5-4.

“Well, (I’m) disappointed that we lost the game,” said Arteta, who gave Ødegaard his first minutes of pre-season following the World Cup and will welcome back his full squad on Monday. 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 some of them 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.”

Maresca singled out his wide players after Antoine Semenyo supplied assists for Omar Marmoush in City’s 3-1 win over Atlético Madrid; Marmoush scored twice in the space of three minutes early in the second half and substitute Rayan Aït-Nouri added a stoppage-time third as City overturned a half-time deficit in front of more than 50,000 fans at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

“Overall, it was a very good test against one of the best teams in Europe,” Maresca said. “Credit to the players for the effort they have done. From tomorrow pre-season is finished and the real business starts.” Semenyo finished the Asia tour with four assists in three matches, while Savinho also impressed on the opposite flank, and Maresca added: “We need to be clinical. It’s something we need to improve. Slowly we are getting there and with Erling (Haaland) we can be even more dangerous. Today Omar scored twice. This is a boost.”

Maresca also said he was encouraged by the progress made during his first three matches in charge after succeeding Pep Guardiola, with City ending their Asia tour with a draw against Inter, before a penalty-shootout defeat, and victories over a K League All-Stars side and Atlético.

Arteta will welcome back his full squad on Monday, while Maresca said City’s Asia tour has concluded and that pre-season gives way to the “real business” from tomorrow.