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Mikel Arteta eventually felt he had to speak, specifically in order to quieten things down. You couldn’t have a clearer indication of how the Manchester City-Arsenal tensions had reached a peak, after all, than Pep Guardiola himself willingly bringing up the “115 charges”. Some City officials had previously bristled at the media or anyone else mentioning the prospect of the club being punished, and yet here was their most important football figure putting it front and centre of the week’s biggest story.
That showed how affected Guardiola had been by Arteta’s admittedly open-ended comments from Tuesday. The Arsenal manager had spoken about how he has “all the information” on City, having worked at the club for almost four years. Arteta was actually talking about gamesmanship, given all the criticism of his own team over “dark arts”, but the way it was said could have easily been portrayed as talking about the hearing. Guardiola evidently felt that way.
This was also why Arteta took the opportunity to indeed make clear what he meant, and cool those tensions a bit.
Arsenal initially didn’t want to say anything, out of concern that this all might escalate further. There had actually been some satisfaction within the club at City’s response to last week, and even a feeling the champions were “rattled”. Some Arsenal players spoke of winning the “psychological war”, with the latter word coming up a lot in that time. Gabriel used that description, and Guardiola willingly accepted the terms. That made Arsenal’s fixture against Leicester City a crucial battle to be won after City dropped points at Newcastle United.
A problem was the information war alongside it all. Arteta’s comments apart, Arsenal had initially sought to keep their counsel. That meant the week had been dominated by talk of their dark arts, which was then followed by camera footage being leaked of executive vice-chairman Tim Lewis not shaking hands with City counterparts after the 2-2 draw. While the explanation was that he wanted to console his players, some in the room say it was because Lewis had been irritated by how he was greeted when he arrived at the Etihad. The executive is known to have been one of the most vocal figures in the Premier League about the problems of state ownership, and that has played its part in tensions deepening between both clubs.
Those tensions hadn’t reached the managers’ offices, however, at least until Tuesday. Guardiola gave Arteta his break as a coach in 2016, and there has been a friendship. Both had wanted to avoid this, particularly as everyone around them was getting more and more animated about the rivalry. There have been moments when people at Arsenal have studiously avoided bringing up the wider controversies regarding City to Arteta, even though the topic has represented constant discussion throughout the rest of the London club. And now here was Guardiola bringing it up and directly questioning his former assistant.
This was ultimately why Arsenal felt it was better to just get on top of it all and indeed clarify. Arteta spoke at length about his great gratitude and admiration for Guardiola, before insisting that he was only talking about how “will to win” influenced the so-called “dark arts” – and that is something he wants his own team to develop.
It was quite a peace offering, that is worth laying out.
“I can repeat it very clear, I love Pep, I've admired him since I was 10 years old,” he began. “I respect him profoundly, I am so grateful for everything he did for me and continues to do for me and I consider him a friend. I love and respect all of the staff there because I worked with them for four years, and when I said that I know them, I meant I know how hard they work.
“I haven't seen a human being work as hard as Pep, and the coaches and everybody in that football club is consistently winning and the reason they are there is because they continue to maintain that hunger. This is exactly what I've learned and what I mean, so it cannot be any more clear than that.
“If you want to I can repeat it but if someone wants to damage the relationship, that's not in my hands but that feeling is profound – he knows it, the staff know it, because I still maintain with them today, with the board, with the ownership, with everyone. In sport there has to be a will to win – they have it and I have it.
“We have it for sure because we haven’t won it but they have it even if they have won it more than anybody else here. We have to learn and it has to be inspiring for us and it is for me, this is what I mean.
“It’s remarkable what they have achieved, because they have that willing mentality. Hopefully that is clear.”
And yet within those very words was also precisely the reason why it’s impossible for more tension not to develop. That, as Arteta said, is football. That’s also why both the 2-2 draw at City and this weekend’s games felt like it was March rather than September. The tension is that high.
Arteta had earlier spoken about how he would rather have this kind of interaction rather than encouragement, because it proves there is proper competition. Many previous managers have got wise to how Guardiola usually praises you most when his team easily beats you. He can go cool when there’s more friction.
“I prefer this reaction much more than someone clapping my back after the game and saying: ‘Well done, you guys are in the right direction’,” Arteta stated. “This is why I do what I do.”
Some at Arsenal had already noted how City figures had gone from that kind of comment – which some took as “patronising” – to nothing like it at all.
For now, it’s difficult to see how anyone at City can take issue with Arteta’s latest words. That was why he spoke.
It’s just harder to see how there won’t be more flashpoints. Everybody involved has already marked the weekend of 1 February 2025, which is when the return fixture will take place.
The wonder is just what the relationship could look like by then, especially as the hearing is expected to have its first outcome. There's likely to be even more noise, regardless of how the managers talk to each other.
