It took one game for Bruno Guimarães to show Arsenal what Newcastle rarely saw
After just one game at Arsenal, new signing Bruno Guimarães is already doubtful for the next game against Coventry City. This will confuse Newcastle fans, who very rarely doubted Bruno's match-day availability.
Against Man City in the Community Shield, Bruno was a standout player in the first half. He started the match in midfield, alongside captain Martin Ødegaard and Myles Lewis-Skelly. With some stellar moments both on and off the ball, it soon became clear why Arsenal spent the money on him.
However, it wasn't a nice sight to see him with an icepack on his leg on the bench. It could have been precautionary, but Mikel Arteta offered no words of encouragement when asked about his status in a pre-match press conference.
"Let’s see," said Arteta when asked about Bruno's status for the Coventry game. "It’s evolving well, but let’s see."
Newcastle never even had to consider Bruno Guimarães' status. As far as they were concerned, three things were inevitable in life - death, taxes, and Bruno being available to start every game.
In fact, Bruno's injury history speaks for itself. Since arriving in England in 2022, he's only missed an impressive 20 games for club and country. Those games were missed across three different injury spells.
The best ability is availability, so we hope that Bruno's injury scare remains just that - a scare. As Arteta put it, he is developing well.
The unspoken part Arteta is far too respectful to say is that... It's Coventry. There's no easy game in the Premier League, but Coventry at home is one of the easiest fixtures Arsenal have all season, and it comes right before a pretty tough period. Therefore, he can afford to rotate his squad in this one.
READ MORE: Arsenal vs Coventry: Complete head-to-head record ahead of Premier League opener
The ideal scenario is to play Bruno alongside Declan Rice, but at least one of them was always bound to miss out on this match. It could potentially be both, but Arteta had more encouraging words to say about Declan Rice.
He gave both Bukayo Saka and Rice the all-clear to face Coventry, but whether they start is a different story.
We've had a go at Arsenal's predicted starting 11 to face Coventry, but in truth, there are a lot of question marks that can only be answered when Arteta announces the lineup tomorrow.
No matter which way we look at it, Arsenal should be excited to host the first Premier League game as champions tomorrow night. This season is bound to be a rollercoaster of emotions, and not knowing how to feel about Bruno's availability is only the start of that.
Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations
