Much of his life Mikel Arteta is compared to Pep Guardiola. First as a youngster at Barcelona, where he played in the same position as his compatriot, and now as a manager at the top level of English football.
Arteta has gotten used to it and has never tried to hide how much influence Guardiola has had on his career. As a teenage player, he said, Guardiola was his “idol”. And as a coach, he learned so much during his time as Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here, with that willingness and love for coaching, if he hadn’t trusted me and given me the chance,” Arteta said of Guardiola this week.
But this is not to say that the Arsenal manager has ever tried to imitate his friend. There’s a difference between learning from someone and trying to copy them, and one big reason for Arteta’s success this season is that he has put his own spin on the beliefs and principles he shares with Guardiola.
The easy assumption is that Arteta is just a younger version of the City manager. Pep 2.0, you could call it. However, both Arteta and Guardiola strongly reject that.
“We are really different as people and we are very different as managers,” Arteta said ahead of Arsenal’s FA Cup meeting with City on Friday. “That’s why we understand each other so well and have the relationship that we have.
“I had this [the comparisons] when I was a player too. I can’t control that. I’ve never tried copying and pasting anything. This club deserves much better than that and it wouldn’t work that way.”
Guardiola apparently agrees. “What I’ve seen from Arsenal is exclusively from Mikel and his people,” he said. “I’d like to say yes, what they do is because I taught him, but it’s b——t.”
There are of course many similarities between Arteta’s Arsenal and Guardiola’s City. Both men have been shaped by their experiences at Barcelona and they both want their teams to dominate possession, move their opponents with quick passes and attack with width.