Mikel Arteta has spoken of his “love and respect” for Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City staff after being asked to clarify his comments on the club.
It concluded a week of fall-out from Sunday’s ill-tempered 2-2 draw between City and Arsenal, which included Arteta referencing his four years as assistant coach at the current Premier League champions.
On Wednesday, Arteta said of City: “I have been there before. I was there for four years.” When asked to clarify his comments, Arteta added: “I have all the information. So I know. Believe me.”
On Friday, Guardiola said Arteta needed to be “more clear” with his comments. “It can be related in all the process now with 115 charges, maybe it’s about that,” Guardiola said. “He knows information about that maybe, or maybe he had something like… I don’t know.”
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42-year-old Arteta moved to calm the situation on Saturday, insisting that City’s successes were due to “maintaining that hunger” which has seen them win four successive Premier League title.
“I can repeat it very clear, I love Pep, I’ve admired him since I was 10 years old,” Arteta said on Saturday following Arsenal’s 4-2 win at home to Leicester City.
“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 anymore clear than that.”
Arteta joined Guardiola’s backroom team in July 2016 before taking charge of Arsenal in December 2019 (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Arteta said that he maintained a relationship with City from its ownership downwards.
“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,” Arteta added. “He knows it, the staff knows 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.”
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Arsenal’s 4-2 win over Leicester on Saturday, coupled with City’s 1-1 draw at Newcastle, leaves the two sides on 14 points each from their opening six rounds of Premier League matches.
Arsenal are back in action on Tuesday night with a Champions League home match against Paris Saint-Germain on October 1 before a Premier League home game against Southampton four days later.
(Top image: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
