Ahead of Manchester City’s game against Arsenal, Pep Guardiola wanted to downplay his role in Mikel Arteta’s success as a manager.
Mikel Arteta sure did make an impact at Arsenal during his first year as the manager but Pep Guardiola doesn’t think he had much to do with it. There has always been an idea that during his time as Pep’s assistant manager, Arteta learned most of his managerial skills. But the Citizens’ coach completely rejects this notion and gives full credit to his colleague. These two are about to face each other again over the weekend in a new Premier League match.
With the Sky Blue club at 17 straight victories in all competitions, Arteta’s challenge is to end this streak. It won’t be easy but he knows Pep better than most managers due to the time they shared together at Man City. The whole world will be watching both manager go at it this weekend with that Citizens’ streak on the line.
Guardiola doesn’t take credit for Arteta.
Manchester Evening News reported the following statement: “He doesn’t need help, he is more than well prepared. He is an important person in my life, especially when we were in a lot of contact in our period in Manchester and everything was going well. I didn’t inspire him. What he knows he knows for himself. I am not any influence. What he is doing, all credit for him and his backroom staff. All I can say is the last months show me that all managers need time and he is not an exception. What I see in the last two months every game Arsenal played is better than the opponent.
“We play to deserve results and sometimes you lose, you cannot control it. But what we want to deserve he is doing and the games they are playing always they are better than the opponents in terms of controlling the game, creating more chances and conceding few. Maybe working together with all my assistant coaches I speak a lot with them. The people believe that what I say is what happened. I listen a lot, since Barcelona and here with the guys that I had. I listen and most of the time we take decisions together and I took decisions with the influence of Mikel. I don’t know if I influenced him – he has to answer this.”
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