Guimarães hails Arsenal's 'incredible' start to the Premier League season

Bruno Guimarães is confident the "incredible" form that has guaranteed Arsenal will go into the international break top of the Premier League will continue.

Arsenal beat Hull City 1-0 on Saturday thanks to a Martin Ødegaard goal, stretching their lead to six points over closest challengers Manchester City, who missed the chance to close the gap after losing to Nottingham Forest.

The Gunners have made a superb start to the league, collecting 27 points from their first 10 Premier League matches this season (9 wins, 1 defeat). The only sides in the competition's history to have taken more points at this stage are Chelsea in 2005-06, Manchester City in 2011-12 and 2017-18, and Liverpool in 2019-20 (all on 28 points).

Arsenal have won all of their last five league matches and continue to show remarkable consistency. Recalling the shock 3-0 defeat by Brighton just before the previous international break, Guimarães stressed how vital it was to go into this break in good spirits:

"It was a tough game; Hull made things very difficult for us, but the numbers we have put up are really impressive. I am very happy, both for myself and for the team. We will keep fighting, we have done an incredible job so far. The message in the dressing room was very clear; going into the last international break we had played one of our worst games of the season and lost to Brighton. This time the aim was to go into the break feeling good, happy and in high spirits."

Arsenal have kept clean sheets in 7 of their first 10 league matches this season. The only teams in Premier League history to have kept more clean sheets at this stage are Birmingham City in 2003-04, Chelsea in 2004-05 and Manchester United in 2017-18 (eight each).

The London side also recorded a 10th consecutive home win in all competitions; the last time they put together a longer home run under Mikel Arteta was in November 2022 (12 matches).

Guimarães played a key role in the win with his performance against Hull, recording the most touches (111), the most successful passes (86/95) and the most tackles won (2/3) on the pitch.

Head coach Mikel Arteta also praised his player's form, saying: "He is in a much better place now and his impact on the game was huge. He has reached a really serious level, but we can take him even higher. I have total belief in that, and I told him so in the dressing room. He left his mark on many moments of the match, but his potential is far greater than that."