Man City stars' Mikel Arteta belief speaks volumes as Arsenal rivalry heats up

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has plenty of friends within the Manchester City dressing room, despite tensions between the two Premier League rivals having heated up in recent months.

Before being appointed Arsenal boss in 2019, Arteta enjoyed a short but successful stint as Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager.

During his spell with the Blues, Arteta was part of the coaching team that helped inspire City to back-to-back league titles, including a record 100-point haul during the 2017/18 campaign.

Arteta has been credited with helping get the most out of some of City’s best players during that period, including Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and current Gunners ace Raheem Sterling.

The Spaniard left Guardiola’s backroom staff midway through the 2019/20 season to replace Unai Emery at the Emirates Stadium, but Arteta’s impact at the Etihad Stadium was still felt after his departure.

Speaking about conversations he had with City team-mates about Arteta following his departure, Kalvin Phillips, who is still on the Premier League champions’ books, told My Mate’s A Footballer: “They said that as a coach, he [Arteta] was one of the best they’d ever worked with. You can see that now, with the way that Arsenal are playing.”

It comes after a series of heated meetings between City and Arsenal, most recently this season when tempers flared both on and off the pitch.

Erling Haaland is just one of several City stars to have been critical of Arsenal’s approach under Arteta.

Having thrown a ball at the head of Arsenal defender Gabriel following John Stones’ late equaliser, Haaland proceeded to tell Arteta he should “stay humble”.

Bernardo was next to take a pop at the north Londoners, commenting after the game: “It all started in the very first second. In the first action we realised what was going to happen. We had a player injured after they sent him to the ground twice in 10 minutes.

“We had a goal conceded after the referee called our captain [Kyle Walker] and then didn’t allow him to recover his position. The second goal is already their usual block to our keeper, which was allowed by the referee.

“Then the referee allowed a sequence of time-wasting events. The thing that bothers me the most is having a lot of meetings with the FA at the beginning of each season. They tell us they will control this kind of situation and will stop them, but in the end it doesn’t have any worth. They say a lot but nothing happens.”

City have pipped Arsenal to the Premier League in each of the last two seasons, with the Gunners having now gone over two decades without a league title.

Guardiola and co. have already established a small gap between themselves and last season’s runners-up, with City five points clear of their title rivals nine games in.

The pair, barring a meeting in the early rounds of the FA Cup, will face off again at the Emirates Stadium in early February.