Bruno Guimarães came off the bench to score on his home debut as defending champion Arsenal recovered to beat Leeds 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.
Brighton consolidated third place with a 2-0 win at Sunderland, despite playing most of the second half with 10 men after Pascal Struijk was shown a straight red card for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Fulham appeared set for its first win in the Premier League but two very late goals — from Abdoul Ouattara and Dara O’Shea — saw Ipswich snatch a 2-1 victory.
“This is the level for Arsenal, every week, every game, every minute, every action that you have to be at,” Arteta said. Guimaraes netted just four minutes after being sent on. It was the Brazil midfielder’s second goal for Arsenal — he scored against Sunderland last month — after joining from Newcastle in the offseason, and he celebrated by diving into the crowd. It was a first defeat for Leeds, which was hoping to leapfrog Arsenal into second — courtesy of a better goal difference — with a win. Leeds scored in the 55th minute. Gabriel Gudmundsson rolled the ball across the area and it went past the flailing hand of a sprawling David Raya and through to James Justin, who blasted it into the roof of the net.
“Against Brighton (Guimarães) wasn’t at that level, and today he was much better, and he can still be much better, and that’s what we have to demand.
The game at Anfield is City’s first since being found guilty of large-scale financial wrongdoing in the biggest scandal in Premier League history. City is appealing. Arsenal moved level on points with Manchester City at the top of the table ahead of City’s tricky trip to Liverpool on Sunday.
