Arsenal had wanted to sign Bruno Guimaraes for a long time. The Gunners tried to sign him from Lyon back in 2020, and it took another six years and £75million to finally get him from Newcastle this summer.

Guimaraes has only started one of Arsenal’s Premier League games so far, and that was in the dismal defeat to Brighton where he struggled. Instead, Myles Lewis-Skelly has been the partner to Declan Rice in the other five games — all of which the Gunners have won. But two of those games they wouldn’t have won without Bruno.

The Brazilian came on at half-time against Sunderland and scored the winner, then came on just after the hour against Leeds and scored within minutes. Both were tricky games that could easily have ended in dropped points on another day, and Arsenal fans have completely changed their tune on him as a result.

Tuesday’s win over Lille was his first full 90 minutes for the club, and before Arsenal finally broke through, he was the player pushing hardest for a goal. He had three shots in the first half alone and led the team for carries, defensive actions and involvement in attacking moves. It was a complete midfield performance and one which gives Mikel Arteta a welcome headache ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest.

The Bruno Guimaraes habit that needed breaking

It hasn’t always come naturally, though. Eduardo Barthem, a player analyst at Performa Sports who has worked with Bruno Guimaraes since his Lyon days, told The Athletic that one habit from his futsal background used to slow him down: putting his foot on the ball.

Defenders and goalkeepers do it more and more in the Premier League, but in midfield it costs valuable seconds that can change the momentum of an attack. Barthem previously called it a “vice”, but says Bruno has now got it under control.

“Bruno is now a much more self-aware player. He is much more mature and experienced in situations on the pitch, so he’s managed to understand very well the moments when he can put his foot on the ball and when that might disrupt the game,” he said.

The work is far more detailed now. “We used to talk to them a lot about the act of scanning, and today we focus heavily on the details of scanning: the frequency, the direction, the timing,” Barthem explained.

They also pushed him to shoot more, and it showed. After league tallies of four, seven and five in his first three full seasons at Newcastle, he scored nine in his last, a tally no Premier League midfielder bettered. He’s already showing signs he could beat that at Arsenal.

“We encouraged him to shoot more,” Barthem said. “And it’s not just the act of shooting, taking that risk, but also all the preparation leading up to the shot: how he positions himself in relation to the ball, how he moves into space, the control required to execute it, and a quicker, more decisive finish.”