Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has admitted to borrowing one of Pep Guardiola's tactics to help the Gunners improve dramatically this season.
The north London outfit currently sit on top of the Premier League table, eight points clear of second-placed Manchester City, although the reigning champions have played one less league fixture so far this term. A huge reason for Arsenal becoming title contenders is the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who joined from City last summer.
Arteta has deployed the Ukrainian international as an inverted full-back this season, something that gives the Gunners superiority in possession, making it much easier for them to control games and break down resolute defences too. Now, the Spaniard has admitted that the way Guardiola utilised Phillip Lahm at Barcelona helped him understand the benefits of the role.
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“It started when I was in Barcelona, we used to play a 3-4-3 diamond and one of the full-backs used to play there," the 41-year-old said, via the Mirror, when discussing Zinchenko's positioning. "But Pep did it at Bayern for the first time with Phillip Lahm and then that was developed at City with many different ways of doing it with different players.
"So that is the great thing, that you can take all the time things from other sports, other coaches to make yourself better and that curiosity is necessary to evolve and be better." Arteta also deploys right-back Ben White in a similar way, with the England international tucking inside when his side are in possession, effectively meaning the north Londoners play in a 2-3-5 system to pin teams back.
Next up for Arteta and co is a home fixture against Leeds United on Saturday afternoon before back-to-back away outings against Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool and David Moyes' West Ham United.
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