Apprentice Arteta and master Guardiola duel in a match between Arsenal and Manchester City

Sooner or later, it would happen. Pep Guardiola, world football’s greatest coach for 14 years, would find himself threatened by one of the many he inspired along the way. It fell to Mikel Arteta to be the first to occupy this position of apprentice trying to surpass the master, a struggle as old as humanity.

For now, it is Arteta, Arsenal coach, who is getting the better of it. His team receives Guardiola’s Manchester City today at 4:30 pm (ESPN broadcasts) at the Emirates Stadium, at the top of the Premier League, with three points more and one game less than the second-placed team. Precisely the former teacher’s City.

Between 2016 and 2019, Arteta was under the wings of Guardiola, who welcomed him to be part of his coaching staff. It wasn’t exactly charity. The coach was arriving in England and needed to surround himself with reliable people who knew English football in depth. The ex-Barcelona like him, with 11 years of Premier League experience, recently retired from the pitch, came in handy.

“I’m very happy with his success,” said Guardiola in an interview with an English podcast: “He doesn’t know how much I learned from him in the time we worked together. When he left us for Arsenal we had no doubt he would succeed.

Initially, the results did not come. Arsenal have tapped the former player to replace Unai Emery after a three-year stint as assistant to Pep Guardiola. The club was the target of criticism at first, they should have waited a little longer before making the invitation. And Arteta shouldn’t have accepted either.

But things evolved little by little for the apprentice. Arsenal grew in production, gaining strength. In the current season, he took off for good, with a young and “hungry” team, as Guardiola always likes to point out, a contrast to his team, a little fed up with winning English titles – four of the last five possible.

It remains for the apprentice to match the master in direct confrontation. Duels with Guardiola have always been painful. Barring a win in his first season with the Gunners, Mikel Arteta just lost. It was seven out of eight games. City scored 17 goals in matches, Arsenal just four.

The game is considered a first final between the two big favorites for the title. The teams will still play a second match, in Manchester, on April 26th. Until then, checking who will keep their breath. Many said that Arsenal would not be able to. But in 21 matches, there were only two defeats.

For Pep Guardiola, there is the feeling that new duels with apprentices are on the way. Xavi, his player in Barcelona, ​​manages the Catalan team, leader of Espanyol. Vincent Kompany, his defender at City, became a coach and is leader of the English second division with Burnley.