As the competition between Arsenal and Manchester City for the title in May heats up, the Premier League title race is down to the final 10 games.
The second leg of their matchup will take place at the Etihad Stadium on April 26.
The Gunners are eight points ahead of City, who have a game in hand.
At the Emirates Stadium, City prevailed 3-1 in the first leg.
Since Mikel Arteta served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant in Manchester for three years before leaving to take over at his old club, there is a unique connection between this year’s title race and Arteta.
Arteta received some assistance from his former coaching staff when he signed Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus and Ukrainian star Oleksandr Zinchenko for a combined £82 million in the summer, as reported by Caught Offside.
Arteta is copying Guardiola’s tactics
Jesus and Zinchenko have been pivotal for Arsenal.
While many fans have slammed Guardiola for selling them to a rival, Arteta revealed he has taken more from his former boss than two important players.
Zinchenko is a versatile player who can play as a full-back, midfielder, or winger.
Arteta has exploited this advantage at Arsenal by using him as a floating full-back in a move traced back to his compatriot.
“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.
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,” Arteta told Mirror UK.
”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,” he added.
De Bruyne’s message to Guardiola
Speaking of Guardiola, there are reports of dressing room rifts between him and some players including João Cancelo, who departed to Bayern on loan in January.
Sports Brief reported on Kevin De Bruyne sending a message to Guardiola to express his dissatisfaction over the reduced playing time given to him this season.
While KDB said he will do his best when called on, his manager believes the Belgium captain must return to the basics to regain his position on the first team.