Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted the way he has utilised Oleksandr Zinchenko this season has been inspired by Pep Guardiola's use of Phillip Lahm at Bayern Munich.
The City boss had the former Germany defender in his ranks while in charge of the Bundesliga giants, often using Lahm as a central midfielder, despite him typically operating at right-back. During his time as Bayern manager, Guardiola lauded the versatile player and suggested he was one of the most intelligent stars he had coached.
This season, Arteta has taken inspiration from Guardiola and used Zinchenko - predominantly a left-back - in a similar role. The Ukrainian international has thrived at the Emirates since leaving the Blues last summer, helping the Gunners to the top of the Premier League table.
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While discussing the tactical shift, and explaining the concept of a 'floating' left-back, Arteta revealed he was inspired by Guardiola's initial invention.
"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 Spaniard explained. "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."
Zinchenko has made 27 appearances in all competitions so far this season, registering one goal and two assists. The Gunners currently sit eight points clear of City in the top-flight table, albeit with the Blues having a game in hand. The two sides will meet at the Etihad on April 26.
Arteta was asked how his team were gearing up for the business end of the campaign. He explained the Gunners were simply focused on performing to their best ability every day.
He said: "I think it is going to be what we do every single day, that is going to decide our outcome, we cannot control the outcome of other clubs, what we can control is what we do every single day, how we train, how we communicate, how we behave, how is our energy."
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