People keep asking what happens to Zubimendi if Arsenal sign Bruno Guimarães. Let me explain why that question completely misses the point. 🧠🔴
First, the stats. Because this conversation needs to start with data not opinion.
2,911 Premier League minutes played this season. 5 goals.
70% ground duel success rate the highest of any midfielder in Arsenal's squad.
91.4% pass completion. 5.2 progressive carries per 90.
And an average match rating of 7.2 across the entire campaign the most consistent number posted by any Arsenal central midfielder all season.
Martin Zubimendi did not have a good season at Arsenal. He had a quietly elite one. And the difference between those two things is the reason this conversation matters.
The fundamental misunderstanding people have about how Arteta builds his midfield is that it's a direct competition one player in, one player out. It's not.
Arteta runs a system that demands different midfield profiles for different games, different moments, different opponents. Zubimendi isn't competing with Bruno Guimaraes for the same shirt. He's occupying a completely different function within the same engine.
Zubimendi is the anchor. The player who sits in front of the back four and makes everything defensively coherent. When he plays, Saliba and Gabriel are protected from pressure before it reaches them. Rice is liberated to be more aggressive in his positioning. Odegaard gets the freedom to operate higher up the pitch without worrying about what's behind him.
Remove Zubimendi and you don't just lose a midfielder. You lose the structural foundation the entire press is built on.
🔸 He won possession back 5.2 times per 90 this season more than any other Arsenal midfielder.
🔸 His 91.4% pass accuracy means the ball almost never goes backwards unnecessarily when it goes through him.
🔸 Arsenal kept 19 clean sheets this season. Zubimendi started in 17 of them. That's not a coincidence.
🔸He played through a groin issue in the final month of the season and still managed a 7.1 average rating across those appearances.
🔸 Spain selected him for the World Cup alongside Raya and Merino, three Arsenal players in the starting XI of one of the tournament favourites.
Now add Bruno Guimaraes to that picture.
Bruno is a completely different animal, dynamic, box-to-box, carries the ball forward under pressure, scores from distance, dominates physically, leads from the front.
Nine goals and five assists in 29 Premier League games last season for a Newcastle side that finished mid-table. His numbers in a title-winning Arsenal environment would almost certainly be even better.
But here's what Bruno doesn't do that Zubimendi does, sit. Stay disciplined in the defensive structure. Win the ball back quietly without anyone noticing. Play the simple pass that nobody tweets about but starts three moves later turns into a chance.
The two profiles don't compete. They complete each other.
Arteta's dream midfield looks something like this Rice and Zubimendi as the foundation in the big away games, the European nights, the occasions where defensive structure wins trophies.
Rice and Bruno in the open games, the home fixtures where Arsenal need to control possession and score multiple goals.
And Merino fit, healthy and hungry after a season disrupted by injury slotting into either configuration as the most intelligent positional reader in the squad.
Three starters. Three completely different profiles. Zero wasted players.
🔸 Rice — the complete midfielder. Does everything. Leads everything. Irreplaceable.
🔸 Zubimendi — the structural anchor. The reason the press works. The most underrated player in the Premier League.
🔸 Bruno — the dynamic box-to-box engine. Goals. Assists. Physicality. Leadership from the front.
🔸 Merino the Swiss Army knife. Can play six, eight or ten Changes games as a Sub.
🚨 Bruno Guimarães is keen to move to Arsenal this summer, but is unsure whether to try & force his way out of Newcastle, with his current state of mind being described as ‘conflicted’ on how to proceed.
Contrary to claims from agents, who are trying to act as intermediaries in the transfer, Newcastle have NOT rejected a verbal offer from Arsenal. Their view is that this is an agent-led attempt to unsettle the player.
Newcastle have described suggestions they would be willing to accept an offer of around £60m as ‘farcical’ & believe the player would accept their decision to reject any bids of that size.
It is thought Arsenal have always doubted they would be able to get Guimarães this summer for a fee they are willing to pay, but until they make contact to discuss any bid, Newcastle do not know whether they will have a decision to make. 🕵️♂️🇧🇷 [@LukeEdwardsTele]
Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard will be coming up against some familiar faces in the quarter-final 👀🤝
Club team mates becoming rivals on the international stage 🏴🇳🇴
🚨Our possible CENTRAL midfield options for next season:
Mikel Merino 🇪🇸
Bruno Gumairaes 🇧🇷
Martin Zubimendi 🇪🇸
Myles Lewis-Skelly 🏴
DECLAN RICE 🏴
Scary but not for us🔥🔥☄
@wordpostdaily Sometimes it does, and sometimes it comes after we're finally ready to recognize or make the most of it. Either way, the timing usually makes more sense in hindsight.
Seventeen players are entering the quarter-finals this week on one yellow card, meaning if they are booked again this round they will pick up a one-game suspension.
🇲🇦 Issa Diop
🇲🇦 Achraf Hakimi
🇲🇦 Redouane Halhal
🇲🇦 Bilal El Khannouss
🏴 Jude Bellingham
🏴 Nico O’Reilly
🏴 Declan Rice
🏴 Marc Guehi
🇫🇷 Manu Kone
🇫🇷 Michael Olise
🇨🇭 Granit Xhaka
🇨🇭 Denis Zakaria
🇨🇭 Miro Muheim
🇪🇸 Ferran Torres
🇳🇴 Antonio Nusa
🇧🇪 Brandon Mechele
🇦🇷 Gonzalo Montiel